Big Ten Women's Basketball Championship: How to Watch and Game Thread - #1 Seed UCLA Bruins vs. #2 Seed Iowa Hawkeyes
The #1 seed UCLA women’s basketball team will play the #2 seed Iowa Hawkeyes in the championship game of the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament after the Bruins defeated Ohio State in the tournament semifinals yesterday, 72-62. Tip-off for today’s game is set for 11:15 am PT and the game will be broadcast on CBS.
Last Time Out
The Bruins rode the momentum they built up in the final three quarters of Friday’s game against Washington into a fast start against the Buckeyes yesterday. Gianna Kneepkens made a jumper for the first basket of the game yesterday and they never looked back. In fact, UCLA went on to score the first eight points of the game. When the buzzer sounded at the end of the first quarter, the Bruins were up 14-10.
While UCLA stretched out their lead to as many as 16 with 3:29 left in the half, the Bruins took a 32-21 lead into the locker room at the break.
The third quarter saw the Buckeyes trim UCLA’s lead to as few as eight multiple times, but each time, the Bruins stretched the lead right back again. After three, they were up by 12, 52-40.
With 5:09 left in the game, the Buckeyes managed to trim the lead back to eight again, but again, they would get no closer. Angela Dugalić scored the next basket on a three-pointer with what turned out to be the game-winning shot, and it put the Bruins up 65-54 with 4:16 left.
With 1:24 left, Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge cut UCLA’s lead to less than eight, 69-62, for the first time since the Bruins lead 6-0 in the first quarter, but Dugalić made three free throws in the time remaining to give UCLA the 72-62 final score.
Ohio State’s Chance Gray, who is the daughter of former UCLA cornerback Carlton Gray, led all scorers with 23 points and Kiki Rice led the Bruins with 17 points and eight rebounds. Meanwhile, Lauren Betts scored 14 and grabbed nine rebounds. Three other Bruins finished in double figures. Dugalić also put up 14 while Kneepkens added 13 points and made three of nine from long distance and Gabriela Jaquez scored ten.
In the other semifinal, Iowa cruised past Michigan yesterday, 59-42. While Iowa led the entire first half, Mila Hollaway tied the game up with 6:08 left in the third quarter. She even put the Wolverines ahead with a subsequent free throw. The quarter ended with Michigan up by a point, 36-35.
Hannah Stuelke scored Iowa’s next seven points as the Hawkeyes took a 42-38 lead with 7:37 to go in the game. Stuelke’s layup which stretched Iowa’s lead to four points at that point was actually the start of a 19-4 run by the Hawkeyes over the remainder of the game.
Overall, Stuelke scored 11 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter to lead Iowa into today’s title game.
Last Meeting
When the Bruins played the Hawkeyes played in January, Iowa head coach Jan Jensen opted to start Addison Deal instead of Taylor Stremlow. Despite that, Stremlow still played 28 minutes to Deal’s 21. The decision may have cost Iowa the game since Stremlow scored 12 points to Deal’s two and UCLA has tended to boat race most of the teams they’ve played this season. To be sure, Deal likely got the start as an attempt to counter UCLA’s height advantage. She’s listed at 6’0” while Stremlow is listed at 5’10” tall.
An argument can be made, however, that the move almost paid off for Iowa. The Hawkeyes did have a three-point lead with 7:48 to go in the first quarter. The reality was that UCLA’s depth was just too much for this Iowa team. While the Hawkeyes succeeded at holding Lauren Betts to just 14 points, it opened up Angela Dugalić to score 22 to lead the Bruins.
Analysis
I fully expect today’s game to be tougher for the Bruins than January’s game against the Hawkeyes. The LA road trip has proven to be a very difficult one for Big Ten schools. Iowa won’t have the advantage of a hometown crowd in this game, but the neutral court should minimize whatever advantage UCLA has against conference opponents.
That said, I do still expect UCLA to win today’s game by more than 10. It just won’t be a more-than-20-point win like they had back in January.
Listen to the Game With TMB
Today’s game will be broadcast on CBS and streamed on CBSSports.com with Jordan Kent, Ice Young and AJ Ross on the call. Of course, you can choose to listen to Dave Marcus call the game for the Bruins by streaming the game audio. 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. Iowa Hawkeyes game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream today’s game:
Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship
Opponents: #1 Seed UCLA Women’s Basketball (30-1, 18-0) vs. #2 Iowa Hawkeyes (26-5, 15-3)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 3-1
When: 11:15 am PT, Sunday, March 8, 2026
Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
TV: CBS with Jordan Kent, Isis Young and AJ Ross
Live Stream: CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports and Paramount+ apps
Radio/Audio:
Satellite Radio: Sirius Ch. 139 and XM Ch. 195 (UCLA Call)Online: uclabruins.com with Dave Marcus
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
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First game of the tournament where UCLA looks the part of a #1 seed.
This is an asskicking. Iowa has no idea how to run offense against UCLA, and it's leading to easy transition buckets.