No. 2 UCLA will host No. 8 Iowa in a women’s basketball matchup on Sunday at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. The game, featuring the top two teams in the Big Ten Conference, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. PT and will be broadcast on FOX.
UCLA enters the contest with a 20-1 overall record and a perfect 10-0 mark in conference play, while Iowa stands at 18-3 overall and 9-1 in the Big Ten. This meeting comes just past the halfway point of the conference schedule.
The Bruins lead the all-time series against Iowa, holding a 2-1 advantage. Under head coach Cori Close, UCLA has won both previous meetings with the Hawkeyes. Their most recent encounter was a close win for UCLA, who edged out Iowa 67-65 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena last year behind Lauren Betts’ double-double performance of 22 points and 12 rebounds.
In their latest outing, UCLA defeated Illinois on January 28 by a score of 80-67. Senior Lauren Betts led the team with 23 points and nine rebounds despite early foul trouble that limited her first-half minutes. Freshman Sienna Betts contributed with ten points and six rebounds during her sister’s absence from much of the first half. Angela Dugalić scored twelve points, Gabriela Jaquez added eleven, while Gianna Kneepkens and Kiki Rice each scored ten points as part of a balanced team effort.
UCLA was effective from the free throw line against Illinois, making twenty-three out of twenty-seven attempts for an accuracy rate above eighty-five percent.
This season, UCLA started ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 Women’s Basketball Poll released on October 14 and has faced several top fifteen opponents since November—including Oklahoma, North Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee—finishing November with three wins over ranked teams out of four such games played.
The Bruins began their campaign playing six of their first eight games at neutral sites including two trips to Las Vegas for tournaments where they went three-and-one combined.
After going undefeated from November tenth through fifteenth—including victories over Oklahoma and North Carolina—UCLA was named USBWA National Team of the Week.
With seven wins over ranked opponents this season (four coming during conference play), UCLA currently holds sole possession of first place in the Big Ten standings thanks to its unbeaten conference record since late December.
Seven Big Ten programs appear in this week’s AP Top Twenty-Five poll: UCLA (No.2), Iowa (No.8), Michigan (No.9), Ohio State (No.11), Michigan State (No.13), Maryland (No.16), and Washington (No.25). Minnesota, Nebraska, and Illinois also received votes.
Last season saw UCLA win twenty-three consecutive games—a program record—with twenty-two victories by double-digit margins; this surpassed their previous best streak set during their championship run in 1977–78.
The current roster includes seven McDonald’s All Americans: Lauren Betts, Sienna Betts, Angela Dugalić, Timea Gardiner, Gabriela Jaquez, Amanda Muse, and Kiki Rice; Jaquez and Rice were co-MVPs at the all-star game.
Four Bruins average double figures this year; collectively their starting five scores nearly sixty-nine points per game on average while six players have reached or exceeded twenty points individually in single contests so far this season—multiple times more than one player has done so together within one game.
Statistically within conference play: UCLA leads in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.76), total assists (471/22.4 per game), field goal percentage (.516), opponent field goal percentage (.358 allowed); they are also second nationally for rebounding margin (+15.7 per game) while leading both league rebounding totals (43.3 per game) and scoring margin (+30).
From beyond the arc they lead Big Ten shooting (.384)—ranking fifth nationally—and hold second place nationwide in NET rankings with eleven Quad One wins so far this season.
