No. 1 overall seed UCLA will try to advance to the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in eight NCAA women’s basketball tournaments Sunday evening when it faces Richmond in an Regional 1 second-round game, playing at Pauley Pavilion for the final time in the 2024-25 season.
The Bruins began tournament play Friday by defeating Southern, 84-46, a 16th seed in the regional and 66th overall. The 38-point victory was UCLA’s largest in postseason history. The previous record was 32 in a 75-43 victory over Texas A&M in a second-round game of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
Six Bruins reached double figures in a game for the first time this season and two others scored nine points.
The Richmond Spiders, seeded eighth in the region and 32nd overall, advanced with a 74-49 victory over ninth-seeded Georgia Tech on Friday, their first tournament victory after four first-round losses between 1990 and 2024.
“I think our big focus is to be us,” UCLA coach Cori Close said at a Saturday news conference. “We have a phrase that other people try to beat us. We are questing to be us.
“We didn’t think we played to our identity the way we’d like to (Friday). So that’s going to be our number one focus is, first, when are we at our best and can we all be counted on to execute the (scouting report) and be at our best with the things under our control, one game at a time. We’re really going to recommit and focus in on that first.”
Close called Richmond “tremendously well coached,” praising “their ability to move without the ball, to shoot the 3, to push in transition.”
“If they don’t get something in transition, (they) go late into clocks,” Close said.
The defensive keys for the Bruins (31-2) will be ball pressure and “chasing them off the 3-point line,” Close said.
Richmond (28-6) was the regular-season champion of the 15-team Atlantic 10 but lost to Saint Joseph’s, 50-49, in a semifinal of the conference tournament. The Spiders are led by junior forward Maggie Doogan, their leading scorer (16.7), rebounder (7.2), and the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year.
“As long as we play together on both ends of the court, I think we can make some noise tomorrow as well,” said Spiders forward Addie Budnik, who scored 14 points Friday.
Oddsmakers have made UCLA a 14 1/2-point to 16 1/2-point favorite.
The 7 p.m. game will be televised by ESPN.
The winner will advance to play Sunday’s winner between fourth-seeded Baylor and fifth-seeded Ole Miss in a Sweet 16 game Friday in Spokane, Washington.