2026 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament: How to Watch and Game Thread - #1 Seed UCLA Bruins vs. #4 Seed Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Bruins will look to advance to the Elite Eight tonight when they play Minnesota.
The UCLA women’s basketball team is a third of the way to their goal of a national championship. Tonight, they play #4 seed Minnesota in the Sweet Sixteen at Sacramento Regional 2 at 4:30 pm. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
For the most part, the women’s tournament has followed chalk to this point. There have only been six upsets in 48 games through Monday night, though three of those upsets occurred in the Second Round when #5 seed Kentucky defeated #4 seed West Virginia by a point and #6 seed Notre Dame defeated #3 seed Ohio State by ten. One of the more interesting teams so far has been #10 seed Virginia which, first, upset #7 seed Georgia in the first round by nine points and, then, upset #2 seed Iowa by eight in double overtime on Monday.
Last Time Out
Kiki Rice scored the first basket of the game Monday night for UCLA just 23 seconds into the game. Just 27 seconds later, Lauren Betts made it 4-0 on a layup. Eventually, the Bruins would score nine points before Oklahoma State could get on the scoreboard. UCLA would also finish the first quarter on a 10-0 run and the Bruins led 21-6 after one.
The Bruins continued their domination of the Cowgirls in the second quarter, stretching out their lead to as many as 25 points multiple times. By halftime, Oklahoma State was able to shrink the lead back to 20 as the Bruins led 46-26 at the break.
The third quarter saw the Cowgirls looking to fight back. They managed to trim UCLA’s lead to as little as 13 points midway through the quarter, but by the end of the third, the Bruins were back up by 17, leading 64-47.
The Cowgirls continued to push UCLA in the fourth quarter. A three-pointer by Stailee Heard cut the Bruins’ lead to 64-50 during the first minute of the quarter, but that would be as close as Oklahoma State would get. By the midway point in the fourth, UCLA had stretched the lead back out to 20, 72-52.
For the Bruins, the exclamation point came with just over a minute to go when Lauren Betts made what would be the last shot she’d ever take in a game at Pauley. It gave UCLA an 85-64 lead and, while the Bruins don’t go looking for individual accolades, it gave Betts a career-high 35 points for the game. After the shot went through the net, OSU head coach Jacie Hoyt called a timeout and Bruin coach Cori Close took advantage of it to sub out four of her seniors including Betts, giving the home crowd an opportunity to cheer for her, Gianna Kneepkens, Angela Dugalić and Charlisse Leger-Walker a final time.
After the game, Betts was asked for her thoughts about scoring a career-high on her final shot at Pauley. She was almost at a loss for words. After taking a moment to really think about the accomplishment, she said, “Yeah, that’s really cool. I can’t deny, like, that is really cool.” Of course, in typical fashion for every member of this team, she also spoke about how the individual accomplishments don’t mean much. “I feel like the points, they really don’t mean anything to me. To me, I really just want to win games with this team. The fact that we won today is what matters most to me, and that we’re moving on to the Sweet 16,” Betts said.
The mass substitution left only Gabriela Jaquez as the only Bruin senior to finish off the game. Fittingly, Jaquez scored UCLA’s final point in this one on a free throw with 24 seconds left. After an Amari Whiting jumper made the score 87-68, Jaquez dribbled the ball up the floor as the clock ran out to send the Bruins to Sacramento for tonight’s Sweet 16 game.
Meanwhile, the Golden Gophers trailed Ole Miss 54-46 as the game headed into the fourth quarter. Minnesota tied the game, 61-61, with 1:17 left when Mara Braun nailed a three. The teams traded baskets, making it 63-63. The Gophers got the ball back with just 3.5 seconds left. That’s when Amaya Battle hit the game-winning jumper for the Minnesota as time expired.
That shot prevented Ole Miss from getting a rematch of last season’s Sweet Sixteen game against the Bruins, and instead, sets up a rematch of January’s game between these Big Ten foes which saw UCLA defeat Minnesota on the road, 76-58.
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Since the Bruins played the Gophers in mid-January, Minnesota has won 12 of their 15 games. The losses came against Washington, Michigan State and Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament.
Gophers head coach Dawn Plitzuweit has started the same lineup in 28 of Minnesota’s 32 games this season. Based on the Gophers’ second round game, it looks like she will start the same lineup she did against the Bruins in January.
That lineup went 23-5 this season. Meanwhile, the only other starting lineup for Minnesota subbed Brylee Glenn in for Tori McKinney, but that lineup went just 1-3 this season.
Outlook
UCLA cleaned up by going undefeated against a strong Big Ten Conference this season. Minnesota is one of just three Big Ten teams left in the NCAA tournament after eight teams lost in the Second Round.
Regardless of who wins tonight’s game, there will be just two Big Ten teams left after this game.
There is absolutely no reason UCLA should not win tonight’s game. The Bruins just need to stay focused on their game plan for 40 minutes and they should be proceeding on to the Elite Eight on Sunday against the winner of the Duke-LSU game which follows.
This team is on a mission, and that mission should not end tonight.
Listen to the Game With TMB
Tonight’s game will be broadcast on ESPN and streamed on WatchESPN.com with the insufferable Beth Mowins, Debbie Antonelli and Jess Sims on the call. The good news is you can choose to listen to Dave Marcus call the game for the Bruins by listening online or you can opt for the Westwood One national feed on satellite radio. To watch or listen online, just right-click on the links so that you can open up another tab and have it going while you chat in the comments below.
This is your UCLA women’s basketball vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Sweet Sixteen game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream tonight’s game:
2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Sweet 16
Opponents: #1 Seed UCLA Women’s Basketball (33-1) vs. #4 seed Minnesota Golden Gophers (24-8)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 4-1.
When: 4:30 pm PT, Friday, March 27, 2026
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: ESPN with Beth Mowins, Debbie Antonelli and Jess Sims
Live Stream: WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app
Radio/Audio:
Satellite Radio: Sirius Ch. 211 & XM Ch. 204 with Lance Medow & Mary Murphy
Online: uclabruins.com with Dave MarcusLive Stats: NCAA Gamecenter
Tournament Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
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The first three is hit by Lena Bilic, just like we all assumed would happen.
More: UCLA’s whole value proposition this season is that the top five (six if you want to be generous about Dugalic) is so loaded with talent that they can afford an off night from one or two players and win comfortably. What we haven’t seen yet is what happens when most of that group has an off night against a good team. Lauren Betts and Angela Dugalic combined to go 10-13 (76.9%) in the first half, while the rest of the lineup went a miserable 6-20 (30%), and that’s not great. The Bruins are going to need at least one other player to step up in the second half because Minnesota has all sorts of momentum at the moment.