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The postseason path for UC San Diego, victors of the 2025 Big West Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by Credit Union 1, starts close to home. The Tritons are set to face off with Southern in the First Four on Wednesday, March 19 at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.
UC San Diego (20-15) earned its place in the big dance as The Big West’s automatic qualifier after defeating UC Davis 75-66 in The Big West Championship title game on Saturday at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nev. UCSD advanced through the brackets as the No. 4 seed, dispatching Cal Poly and regular-season champion Hawai’i en route to the title.
UC San Diego is making its inaugural appearance in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship in its first year of being postseason eligible after a four-year reclassification period from NCAA Division II. In the DII era, the Tritons appeared in the bracket 13 times and advanced to the national semifinals in 2007.
Southern (20-14), SWAC regular-season and tournament champions, punched their ticket after downing sixth-seeded Alcorn State in the title game, 64-44. This is a sixth appearance in the national brackets for the Jaguars, who last represented the SWAC in the brackets in 2023.
This will be the first-ever meeting between Southern and UC San Diego in women’s basketball, and just a second game of the season for a Big West squad to face off against a foe from the SWAC (Dec. 16 - Hawai’i vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff – 55-15).
The victor of the UC San Diego versus Southern matchup moves on to take on top overall seed and host UCLA on Friday, March 21 as part of Spokane Region 1.
The Tritons are led by sophomore guard Sumayah Sugapong, who provides 14.71 points per game on .349 shooting with 4.2 rebounds and a league-best 3.60 assists and 2.51 steals a night. The San Diego native and All-Big West first team selection has compiled 88 total steals on the year, 16th in NCAA Division I.
Big West Newcomer of the Year Sabrina Ma adds 10.1 points with 2.09 three-pointers per game after joining the team after two seasons at San Jose State. Honorable mention All-Big West performer and All-Tournament team selection Gracie Gallegos is coming off a career-high 24 points in the Championship finale and was joined on the All-Tournament team by graduate student Parker Montgomery.
As a team, UCSD paces The Big West in turnover margin (+5.31), turnovers forced per game (20.14) and steals per game (11.3). The steals average ranks 20th in the NCAA. Sugapong, Montgomery and Ma hold three of the top four lines in steals in The Big West.