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UCLA women's basketball set to match up with powerhouse UConn in December

The Bruins and Huskies will play in the Never Forget Tribute Classic in Newark, New Jersey

Sam Connon

UCLA women's basketball set to match up with powerhouse UConn in December
UCLA women's basketball set to match up with powerhouse UConn in December /

A battle between one of the best programs on the West Coast and the undisputed champion of the East Coast has been booked.

UCLA women's basketball will travel to Newark, New Jersey, to face off against UConn on Dec. 11 in the Never Forget Tribute Classic at the Prudential Center. The Bruins and Huskies most recently played in the 2019 Sweet 16, and UConn emerged with the 69-61 win.

Before that, UConn came to Pauley Pavilion on Nov. 21, 2017, to cut UCLA's momentum short just a few days after the Bruins beat then-No. 2 Baylor. The Huskies beat the Bruins in the prior season's Sweet 16 as well.

UCLA has gone up against UConn a total of four times since coach Cori Close was hired in 2011, and she is winless against coach Geno Auriemma in those head-to-head matchups. The Huskies won their only two games versus the Bruins prior to Close's arrival.

There are still a handful of players left on both teams who were active in the Nov. 2017 and March 2019 games between UCLA and UConn. Then-freshman guard Kayla Owens played two minutes and recorded a single rebound for the Bruins in the 2017 matchup, while her classmate Chantel Horvat put up eight points with a steal, a block and a rebound across 27 minutes.

Neither played in the 2019 Sweet 16, as Horvat missed the final 26 games of that season with an injury. Then-freshman guard Kiara Jefferson averaged 14.0 minutes per game that year, but played just one against the Huskies and did not record a single statistic. 

UConn guard Christyn Williams and forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa were freshmen on that 2019 Sweet 16 team. Williams posted 14 points, three assists and four rebounds while Nelson-Ododa came off the bench to the tune of two points, two blocks and one rebound in the win.

The Huskies have won an NCAA-record 11 national championships and have been to 23 of the last 25 Final Fours. The Bruins have never made it past the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament, but their six-straight top-15 finishes in the postseason AP poll demonstrate their ability to hang with the best.

The game will be televised nationally on ABC, with tip-off scheduled for 10 a.m. Tickets are slated to go on sale Sept. 10 at 7 a.m.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon was the Publisher and Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s All Bruins from 2021 to 2023. He is now a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s Fastball. He previously covered UCLA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country and golf for The Daily Bruin from 2017 to 2021, serving as the paper's Sports Editor from 2019 to 2020. Connon has also been a contributor for 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' BruinBlitz, Dash Sports TV, SuperWestSports, Prime Time Sports Talk, The Sports Life Blog and Patriots Country, Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s New England Patriots site. His work as a sports columnist has been awarded by the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon graduated from UCLA in June 2021 and is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.