2025 Women’s March Madness: UCLA, USC continue tournament run after weekend wins

USC, UCLA continue dancing in NCAA tournament

The USC and UCLA women's basketball teams both advanced in the 2025 NCAA women's basketball tournament over the weekend.

LOS ANGELES - The women’s basketball teams at UCLA and the University of Southern California are still dancing!

The two teams representing Southern California both entered the 2025 women’s basketball tournament as No. 1 seeds.

What we know:

The Lady Trojans finished the 2024-25 regular season as first in the Big Ten Conference with a 29-3 record.

Finishing second in the conference was UCLA, who went 32-2.

Both teams won their games over the weekend and continue fighting for a championship.

What they're saying:

After a slow start on Sunday, UCLA beat Richmond 84-67 to advance to the Sweet 16.

"I’m really proud of our defensive response. We had too many mistakes of how we were guarding certain things, in the first half and they were hot. And that combination was tough for us," said UCLA coach Cori Close.

Following the win, Close how now led the Lady Bruins to their seventh Sweet 16 appearance in the last nine tournaments.

(Getty Images)

"I’m just super proud of my teammates," said UCLA star Lauren Betts. "I thought that second half we really turned it around. I think we really just changed our mentality defensively. We wanted to get stops and we overcommunicated and we had each other’s backs."

(Getty Images)

On Saturday, USC destroyed UNC Greensboro 71-25.

Kiki Iriafen said the team had some rust to shake off to start the game at the Galen Center.

"I think we were really excited to be playing again. We haven’t played in like two weeks playing in your homecourt. So, I think there was a lot of rust but a lot of excitement and I think out defense really helped us in that first half," said Iriafen.

Juju Watkins, a Southern California native who one of the game's most popular players, sparked some concerns about an apparent anjle injury. However, she returned to the game and confirmed she'd be playing in the next matchup.

"It’s the end of the season and [my]body’s a little banged up, but onto the next," Watkins said.