UCLA Women's Basketball: 2 Bruins Ditching Team To Compete In 2024 Olympic Qualifiers

Two Bruins will be competing at Olympic Qualifiers.

Two members of your UCLA Trojans women's basketball team will be missing a pair of upcoming games in order to compete in qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Senior Angela Dugalić and Sophomore Lina Sontag will miss the Bruins' games this Friday versus Arizona and this Sunday versus Arizona State to compete at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belém, Brazil, via UCLA Communications.

Dugalić will be competing for the Serbian national team while Sontag will be on the German national team as Serbia, Germany, Austria and Brazil fight for spots at the 2024 Olympic Games.

After missing the entire 2022-2023 season, Dugalić is back this season and averaging 9.1 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. The former Oregon Duck is now in her third season with UCLA, but will miss a couple games to pursue an Olympic dream.

Meanwhile, Sontag is averaging 2.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting 40.5% from the field. The six-foot-three Sontag is one of the more effective defenders, after ranking eighth among all Pac-12 players in blocks during her freshman season. Sontag, who was born in Berlin, Germany and played high school basketball in Germany, will help her home-country's women's basketball team try to make their first Olympic berth in history.

Both Dungalić and Sontag have been crucial in UCLA being ranked as the No. 9 team in the land with a 17-4 record thus far this season. The Bruins will have to rely on their other key players to get these two wins, and rebound after their recent loss to Stanford.