UCLA Women's Basketball: Angela Dugalic Impressing in Olympics

Dugalic is headed to the quarterfinals.

Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

UCLA women's basketball power forward Angela Dugalic has helped lead Serbia to the quarterfinal round of the women's basketball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Dugalic. competes professionally for Serbia. She contributed to Serbia winning two of their three games during the Group Stages, as Serbia earned an 81-59 win over China and a 58-55 win over Puerto Rico. They did lose one Group Stage game, falling 70-62 to Spain.

Despite the loss, Dugalic had one of her best games against Spain. She went three-for-three on two-point attempts and put up seven total points. She was congratulated by UCLA women's basketball head coach Cori Close, who said, "Way to go Angela Dugalic! You have worked so hard." in a repost.

Way to go @AngelaDugalic ! You have worked so hard. https://t.co/xturKUNKVF

— Cori Close (@CoachCoriClose) August 3, 2024

Dugalic and Serbia will face Australia during the Quarterfinals on Wednesday. The other three Quarterfinal matchups also take place Wednesday, as Spain faces Belgium, Germany takes on France, and Team USA goes up against Nigeria.

Before the Olympic Games, Dugalic previously represented the Serbian National Team at Eurobasket 2021, helping Serbia take the gold in the event.

Team USA is currently the favorite to win the gold medal in Olympic women's basketball, which would be their eighth straight gold in the event. The only other team to win the gold in this event was the Soviet Union, who disbanded over 30 years ago.

Serbia has yet to medal in Olympic women's basketball since the event was first added to the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games. They did earn their best finish in team history at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, finishing in fourth after losing the bronze medal game to France. They will seek their first medal over the final week of Olympic competition.

Along with Dugalic, Bruins Emily Bessoir, and Lina Sontag are competing at the Paris Olympics. Bessoir and Sontag both represent Team Germany. Both Dugalic and Sontag missed UCLA games this season to help their countries compete during Olympic qualifiers. Both were successful, and Germany qualified for this competition at the Olympics for the first time in history.

While with UCLA in 2023-24, Dugalic appeared in 30 games, starting 29 of them. She averaged 4.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.2 steals during an average of 23.8 minutes per game. She helped UCLA advance to the NCAA Sweet 16, where they lost to LSU. She will return this fall for her third season with UCLA.