The UCLA women’s basketball team will play in the NCAA Sweet 16 on Friday for a fourth consecutive time. In two of those, the Bruins had the misfortune of running into a wall — eventual champions South Carolina in 2022 and LSU in 2023.
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Now, the Bruins appear to be the wall, and it’s Minnesota’s job to run through it.
After breaking into its first Final Four last spring, top seed and second-ranked UCLA (33-1) is expected by many to finally make it to a championship game for the first time in program history.
Meanwhile, fourth seed and 18th-ranked Minnesota (24-8) is playing in its first NCAA tournament in eight years, and has advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005.
That was a team goal at the season’s onset, sophomore wing Tori McKinney said Thursday, but that doesn’t mean Gophers are simply happy to be here.
“We talked about it a lot, about (how) you kind of reach your goals but once you reach them, it’s like where do you go from there?” she said. “Especially with this team, I think we’ve kind of all realized that we want to keep playing for as long as possible.”
If they move forward, it will be with the game that got them here. The Gophers rallied late to beat 13 seed Green Bay in the first round, and 5 seed Ole Miss in the second at Williams Arena.
“We are who we are and understand what our identity is and how we have to play, and that’s with great toughness and resiliency, togetherness,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said.
Tip between the Big Ten rivals is set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. CDT at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center. It will be broadcast live on ESPN. The teams met once in conference play, a 79-53 UCLA victory Jan. 14 in Minneapolis.
In victories over three ranked teams this season, including No. 7 Iowa and No. 11 Ohio State, the Gophers outrebounded their opponents by an average of 12 boards and won the turnover battle, committing fewer than 10 in each.
The resilience and togetherness was clear in both of the Gophers’ NCAA tournament wins: They rallied to win going away against Green Bay by outscoring the Phoenix 30-9 in the fourth quarter, and edged the Rebels, 65-63, by outscoring them 19-9 in the final frame.
Amaya Battle’s baseline jumper with 0.8 seconds left sealed the Gophers’ Sweet 16 berth.
“We have to have a find-a-way mentality, and that’s who we are,” Plitzuweit said. “So, we’re really not changing who we are at this point.”
Bruins guard Kiki Rice, a 5-foot-11 senior, had a big game against the Gophers in January, shooting 8 of 9 from the field, 3 for 3 from beyond the arc, and scoring a season-high 25 points while adding five assists and four rebounds.
Center Lauren Betts, whom Gophers post Sophie Hart called “a true 5,” shot 54 percent from the field and finished that game with 17 points and 10 boards. It will be a key matchup; Hart finished the last meeting with eight points and one rebound.
But Hart, a 6-5 center from Farmington, said she’s looking forward to playing against someone who plays a similar game.
“I’ve got my hands full, definitely,” Hart said, “but I think it’s more fun because you get to be a little bit more physical, I mean, not quite as (many) touch fouls, if that makes sense. … It lets you play a little bit more. And I’m a true back-to-basket post player, so I prefer that.”
The winner Friday will advance to face the winner of the late game between traditional powers Duke and LSU on Sunday at 1 p.m.
“We have a great challenge ahead of us, certainly, with our match-up with UCLA,” Plitzuweit said, “but we’re really thrilled to have an opportunity to continue playing.”
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