Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament: How to Watch and Game Thread - #1 Seed UCLA Bruins vs. #8 Seed Washington Huskies
The Bruins begin their defense of last season's Big Ten Tournament title today with a game against the Huskies.
After 29 regular season games, the UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team looks poised to make another Final Four run this season. Before they can make a run for the NCAA title, though, the Bruins will look to defend their Big Ten Tournament title. That defense begins this morning when UCLA faces the Washington Huskies at 9 am PT at Gainsbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
This will be UCLA’s first game of the Big Ten Tournament after the Bruins earned a double bye by virtue of being the #1 seed in the tournament. Washington, however, played their first game yesterday morning and the Huskies topped Southern Cal, 76-64.
Of course, while the Bruins should be all-business this morning, it doesn’t mean that the players aren’t having some fun. Before the team left for Indianapolis, Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez and Charlisse Leger-Walker surprised Bruin fans with this dance routine at Tuesday’s men’s baskeball game against Nebraska.
It’s good to see these ladies are ready to go dancing.
Conference Honors
The Bruins are also getting some much-deserved accolades. Lauren Betts was named Big Ten Player of the Year as well as Defensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row. She became the first player in conference history to earn both POTY and DPOY in the same season. She was also a unanimous selection for All-Big Ten First Team and the only unanimous selection on either Big Ten All-Defensive teams. Angela Dugalic was named Sixth Player of the Year for her contributions off the bench.
Head Coach Cori Close earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors after leading the Bruins to an undefeated season in conference play. Kiki Rice joined Betts on the All-Big Ten First Team and Big Ten All-Defensive Team. Gabriela Jaquez and Gianna Kneepkens both earned All-Big Ten Second Team honors from the coaches with Jaquez also earning All-Big Ten Second Team from the media and Kneepkens being named All-Big Ten Honorable Mention from the media. Sienna Betts earned a spot on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. Finally, Charlisse Leger-Walker was recognized as UCLA’s Sportsmanship Honoree.
#8 seed Washington Huskies
The Bruins are familiar with the Huskies, having just beaten them 82-67 on February 19th at Pauley Pavilion. That was the Bruins’ closest home win of the season and their closest win over an unranked opponent.
When UCLA played the Huskies two weeks ago, Brynn McGaughy led Washington with 19 points despite coming off the bench. Head coach Tina Langley started 6’5” senior Yulia Grabovskaia instead of McGaughy in that game in an attempt to stop Lauren Betts. To be honest, it didn’t really work as Betts led all scorers with 23 points in the game.
The other difference in that game was the fact that the Bruins had four players in double figures while Washington only had three. UCLA held Ellie Ladine to just two points, well below her season average of 10.4 ppg, in just 23 minutes on the floor. The Huskies just didn’t enough fire power against the Bruins.
By comparison, Ladine put up 25 yesterday against the Trojans in 33 minutes.
Outlook
UCLA cannot take the Huskies lightly.
When they met recently, the Huskies used three-pointers to keep the game close. Washington tried 27 three-pointers and made ten. By comparison, UCLA went just 4 of 15. Expect Washington to try to use the three to keep the game closer again.
As long as the Bruins remain focused and play their game, they should be able to win today’s game by double digits.
Listen to the Game With TMB
Today’s game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network and streamed on FoxSports.com with Krista Blunk, Elise Woodward, and Autumn Johnson 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. Washington Huskies game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream today’s game:
Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals
Opponents: #1 Seed UCLA Women’s Basketball (28-1, 18-0) vs. #8 seed Washington Huskies (21-9, 10-8)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 42-32
When: 9:00 am PT, Friday, March 6, 2026
Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
TV: Big Ten Network with Krista Blunk, Elise Woodward, and Autumn Johnson
Live Stream: FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app
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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Nice run to end the quarter, but boy howdy this has not been a good game from the team. Maybe you blame the early start time (it's 12:00 PM in Indianapolis currently, so even given the time shift, it's an early start by the team's standards), but this has looked like a team just going through the motions because they know none of this matters.
Kiki to the line!