UCLA women’s basketball to face Connecticut in nationally televised matchup

The Bruins are set to travel across the country to play one of the top teams in the nation.

UCLA women’s basketball (5-2) will face No. 3 Connecticut (5-2, 1-0 Big East) in the Never Forget Tribute Classic on Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The blue and gold is coming off a 79-point victory against San Jose State, its largest victory since coach Cori Close took over in 2011.

The game will be nationally broadcasted on ABC and will be the first-ever regular-season collegiate women’s basketball game to be televised on that network.

The two teams have faced off six times in the history of the programs, with the Huskies emerging victorious in each one. Most recently, they sent the Bruins home early in the Sweet 16 of the 2019 NCAA tournament in a 69-61 defeat for UCLA.

However, Close said she is confident in her team’s ability to bring out a victory this time around.

“This is not about going to get a moral victory. We’re not playing the four letters on the front of their jerseys,” Close said. “We’re just playing possession by possession. Mindset is the most important thing.”

Among a roster full of former top recruits, guard Paige Bueckers – who was named the AP Player of the Year as a freshman last season – leads the team with 21.2 points per game along with 5.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists. However, the sophomore sustained a lower leg injury in the final minute of UConn’s matchup with Notre Dame on Sunday and will miss six to eight weeks.

Close said despite the injury to Bueckers, whom Close coached in 2019 with the USA U19 World Cup team, the Huskies still have a roster full of talent, including guard Christyn Williams, who was also the No. 1 player in her high school recruiting class.

“Paige is a generational level player, and obviously, she is going to be missed, and it changes some of the things we can scheme on, but they’re still very, very talented.” Close said.

UCLA is currently averaging 77.1 points per game on the season with a 3-point percentage of 39.8%, while UConn puts up 70.1 points per game on 32.3% shooting from beyond the arc.

Three Bruins – graduate student guard Natalie Chou, graduate student forward IImar’I Thomas and junior guard Charisma Osborne – are ranked in the top 10 in the Pac-12 in points per game, including a team-leading 19.1 points per game for Thomas in her first year with the program.

Aside from Bueckers, four other Huskies have posted at least 7.5 points per contest this season for a team that has already claimed two ranked victories on the year.

“UConn is a really good team. We’re all really excited to play them, just to get a gauge of where we’re at compared to really good teams,” Osborne said. “We’re going to stick to our basic things like denial, reversals, jump the ball, help and all those things.”

In UCLA’s last match, Chou scored a career-high 31 points and also recorded six rebounds and a career-best 11 assists to finish with the first double-double of her career, earning her Pac-12 Player of the Week honors.

Chou was the second-highest scorer in the game just behind Thomas’ 32 points. Thomas said the support from the bench, from both her coaches and teammates, has been instrumental to the team’s success.

“We can compete with anybody,” Thomas said. “It helps every day going into the gym knowing I have the confidence of my coach as well as my teammates, so I think that just helps push me even more.”

UCLA will tip off against UConn at 10 a.m. on Saturday.