UCLA received the second overall seed in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament and top seed in the Sacramento 2 region Sunday and will face 16th-seeded California Baptist on Saturday in a first-round game at Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins (31-1) have won 25 consecutive games, including a 96-45 victory over Iowa last Sunday in the most one-sided Big Ten Tournament championship game. UCLA’s victory over the then-ninth-ranked Hawkeyes was also the largest against a team in The Associated Press Top 10 during the NCAA era, which began in the 1981-82 season.
The Lancers (23-10) earned their second berth in the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament in their four seasons of eligibility with a 76-54 victory over Abilene Christian in the championship game of the Western Athletic Conference tournament on Saturday in Las Vegas, their sixth consecutive victory and seventh in eight games.
No. 1 seeds are 123-1 against No. 16 seeds in the first round since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994. Harvard recorded the lone victory, defeating Stanford, 71-67, in 1998.
This will be the second time in three seasons the Bruins will face California Baptist in a first-round tournament game. UCLA was an 84-55 winner on March 23, 2024, in the only previous meeting between the schools.
The UCLA-California Baptist winner will face the winner of Saturday’s game between eighth-seeded Oklahoma State (23-9) and ninth-seeded Princeton (26-3) on Monday in the second round.
Defending national champion Connecticut (34-0) is the overall top seed.