A magical season for UC San Diego women’s basketball (24-9, 17-3 Big West) ended against TCU (30-5, 15-3 Big 12) in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday. In their second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, the No. 14 seed Tritons lost 86-40 against the No. 3 seed Horned Frogs.
The Tritons entered the match on a six-game win streak in which they clinched the Big West regular-season title for the first time and won a second straight Big West Championship title. UCSD’s 24 wins were its most in a season since transitioning to Division I in 2020.
However, the odds were stacked against the Tritons when UCSD was drawn against TCU in the round of 64. The Horned Frogs spent the entire season ranked and reached the Elite Eight last year. TCU, which has not lost at home in over two years, hosted the first two rounds of the tournament. A Triton victory would have made them the first 14-seed in history to defeat a 3-seed.
TCU’s high-octane offense — powered by graduate student guard Olivia Miles — was too much for the Tritons to overcome. Miles, who is projected to be drafted second overall in the 2026 WNBA draft, carved up the UCSD defense, and the Tritons found no match for her court vision and pinpoint passes. She grabbed seven rebounds and dished out four assists in the first quarter alone as the Horned Frogs jumped out to a double-digit lead. Miles finished with 12 points, 16 rebounds, and 14 assists, becoming the first player in NCAA history to record a March Madness triple-double with two different teams.
Graduate student guard Taylor Bigby was the beneficiary of Miles’ benevolent passing, lighting up from beyond the arc. During the second quarter, Bigby scored a triple on four straight Horned Frog possessions, stretching TCU’s lead to 31 midway through the period. She finished with a career-high 27 points on 7-for-9 shooting from deep.
The Tritons ended the first half down 48-25, and the second half was not any better, as the Horned Frogs piled on the points. A 19-0 TCU run to end the game added insult to injury as the Tritons slid from a respectable 27-point loss to a 46-point blowout.
“If you would just focus on the result versus the process, then the process would not be worthwhile,” head coach Heidi VanDerveer said in a postgame press conference. “I feel like our team looked at it holistically and really enjoyed the growth and some pain involved. … Playing for each other is what they’ll remember in 20 years. I don’t think they’ll remember the score or anything like that, but I think they’ll remember the process and the journey, and it’s more about the journey than the destination.”
The game was a final send-off for senior guards Sabrina Ma and Makayla Rose. Ma transferred to UCSD from San Jose State ahead of the 2024-25 season and emerged as a key starter and leader in both Triton postseason runs.
“We’ve really set the standards the past two years, and there’s only going up from here,” Ma said. “I hope that my impact on the team and my leadership has been able to help the freshmen out and the younger girls out to continue the legacy that we’ve built.”
Rose joined the team from UC Riverside; in her lone season with the Tritons, she set UCSD’s single-season Division-I steals record and won Big West Defensive Player of the Year and Big West Hustle Player of the Year.
“I knew that this was a very special program from the beginning,” Rose said. “I think that we showed that from the beginning to the end. It’s a program where we’re all allowed to grow on and off the court, and I think that’s very evident in each of us as individuals; none of us are the same player or person as we were when we came into this program. … My time here, I will never take for granted, and I cherish every single moment that I’ve shared with my teammates and my coaching staff.”
The loss marks a disappointing end to the most successful season in UCSD women’s basketball history. After a 1-3 start, the Tritons quickly found their rhythm and established themselves as favorites for the Big West title. UCSD only lost thrice in conference play and swept through its two tournament games en route to winning both Big West titles.
“The basketball will take care of itself, but your culture is strong because you have great people,” VanDerveer said. “You play 30 games, but what are you doing the other 335 days? How are you to be around? It’s not about you in a team sport; if it is about you, then take up tennis. And that’s what we talk to our team about, and I think Sabrina and Mak and Dymo and Rosa, they’re all reflections of that ideology.”
