First look: Team info, game times, TV for South Carolina basketball’s Sweet 16 region

Another NCAA Tournament means another Sweet 16 appearance for coach Dawn Staley and the South Carolina women’s basketball team.

The undefeated, reigning national champion Gamecocks have advanced to their ninth Sweet 16 over the last 10 postseasons and will play UCLA on Saturday for a spot in the Elite Eight.

Here’s a closer look at that game, as well as others being played at downtown Greenville’s Bon Secours Wellness Arena as part of the Greenville 1 and Greenville 2 regions of the bracket.

Greenville Region 1: No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 4 UCLA

When: 2 p.m. Saturday

TV: ESPN

How USC got here: South Carolina, the No. 1 overall seed in the bracket, won each of its first two NCAA Tournament games by 30-plus points to extend its program-record winning streak to 40 games. … USC beat No. 16 seed Norfolk State 72-40 in the first round and No. 8 seed South Florida 76-45 in the second round. … The Gamecocks trailed by five points in the first quarter against USF and only led by four at halftime, but they outscored the Bulls 43-16 in the second half to advance (rather easily) to Greenville.

How UCLA got here: UCLA cruised past No. 13 seed Sacramento State 67-45 in the first round (which the Bruins hosted as No. 4 seed) … The Bruins held off 5-seed Oklahoma for an 82-73 win Monday night. … South Carolina and UCLA met once earlier this season, with USC beating UCLA 73-64 on Nov. 29 at Colonial Life Arena.

Greenville Region 1: No. 2 Maryland vs. No. 3 Notre Dame

When: 11:30 a.m. Saturday

TV: TBA

How Maryland got here: Maryland, which hosted opening weekend games in College Park as a No. 2 seed, blew out No. 15 Holy Cross by 32 points in the first round. … The Terrapins used a big third quarter to get past No. 7 Arizona, 77-64, in the second round. … This is Maryland’s third consecutive Sweet 16 and 11th overall under coach Brenda Frese.

How Notre Dame got here: Notre Dame lost All-American point guard Olivia Miles to a knee injury in its regular-season but rallied for a second-straight Sweet 16 under coach Niele Ivy. … The Fighting Irish, a No. 3 seed, beat No. 14 Southern Utah in the first round and held off a feisty No. 11 Mississippi State team, 53-48, in its second round game in South Bend, Indiana.

Monday game information

The winners of Saturday’s South Carolina-UCLA and Maryland-Notre Dame games will meet Monday, March 27 in the Elite Eight round. That game, also at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, is tentatively scheduled for a 7 p.m. tipoff, per the arena website.

Greenville Region 2 information

This season, South Carolina is part of a new NCAA women’s basketball venture announced last August: hosting the tournament regional rounds at two sites instead of the usual four.

Greenville and Seattle are the host sites for 2023, meaning both arenas have double the teams on an inverted schedule. In Greenville’s case, for example, Region 1 (which includes South Carolina) is playing games Saturday and Monday, and Region 2 is playing Friday and Sunday.

The Friday games for Greenville Region 2: No. 4 Villanova vs. No. 9 Miami and No. 2 Utah versus No. 3 LSU. The winners of those games play Sunday night for a trip to the Final Four.

Since the Greenville regionals are on separate sides of the bracket (it’s the same for Seattle), this weekend’s eventual regional champion winners wouldn’t meet each other unless they faced off in the April 2 national championship game at American Airlines Arena in Dallas.

How to buy tickets

Tickets are available via Ticketmaster on the arena’s official website, BonSecoursArena.com. As per usual, single-session packages — which guarantee entry for all of the games played on a given day — are an option.

For South Carolina specifically, Saturday, March 25 (“Session 2”) tickets start around $20 excluding fees for upper bowl seating, per Ticketmaster. Tickets for a hypothetical Monday, March 27 Elite 8 game (“Session 4”) also start around $20 for upper area seating.

The cheapest lower bowl tickets for USC’s Saturday game and potential Monday game are about $70 to $80, excluding fees, according to Ticketmaster, with many already over $100.