LOS ANGELES — The UCLA women’s basketball team was awarded the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Division I Tournament on Sunday, the highest seed in program history.
“We would have of course loved to have been the No. 1 seed, but being a No. 2 is the highest seed in program history,” head coach Cori Close told reporters after the bracket reveal on Sunday. “So just wrap your mind around that. And we’re still a very young team in a lot of ways. And so I feel thrilled.”
The Bruins will host No. 15 seed Cal Baptist in the first round of the Regional 2 in Albany. The Lancers are making their first NCAA tournament appearance in program history.
The game will be held on either March 22 or 23.
Whichever team wins between UCLA and Cal Baptist will face either seventh-seeded Creighton or 10th-seeded UNLV, which will also play their opening game at Pauley Pavilion, in the second round.
CBU (28-3) qualified by winning the WAC tournament, topping Stephen F. Austin 75-74 in the championship game Saturday morning.
The Bruins (25-6) ended the regular season on a five-game win streak and third in the Pac-12 regular season standings. They were the No. 6 team nationally in the AP Top 25 rankings before heading to the Pac-12 tournament, where they beat Utah before falling to eventual tournament champion USC.
It was a tumultuous season at times, with 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts missing multiple games due to an undisclosed medical reason and Lina Sontag and Angela Dugalić missing time due to Olympic qualification obligations with their respective countries.
The Bruins’ depth got them through tough times and helped the team excel at the end of the season.
“It is our deepest team for sure,” Close said. “And I would say most versatile in some ways, too. The most varied ways we’ve won games and continue to win games. We can make a dip run as long as we’re focused on the correct things.”
UCLA is led in scoring by Betts, a sophomore who averages 14.7 points per…
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