Women’s basketball rebounds from Arizona loss with win over Arizona State

Two games – two different outcomes for the Bruins.

No. 8 UCLA women’s basketball (19-2, 8-2 Pac-12) split its games over the weekend, losing Friday to No. 16 Arizona (18-3, 7-3) 92-66, but rebounded to defeat No. 19 Arizona State (16-6, 6-4) 70-61 on Sunday.

Friday’s loss snapped a 13-game winning streak for the Bruins over the Wildcats. UCLA had already defeated Arizona 70-58 at home this season.

“We were humiliated, and it was frustrating,” said coach Cori Close. “(Arizona) shot a lot better (Friday), but other than that, we didn’t play with the same level of aggression and we didn’t control possession.”

After making its first seven shots – including two 3-pointers from the Pac-12’s leading scorer in guard Aari McDonald – Arizona jumped out to a 12-point lead within the first six minutes of the game, and the Wildcats’ lead never fell below double-digits.

In the first quarter alone, Arizona went on multiple runs of five points or more and shot 9-of-12 compared to UCLA’s 7-of-19.

McDonald – who averaged 20.5 points per game coming into Friday – finished the contest with a game-high 27 points, up from her 19 points the last time she faced the Bruins.

“(McDonald is) probably the fastest guard in the country with the ball in her hands,” Close said. “I don’t think any one person can (guard her). We put too much on one person in (freshman guard) Charisma Osborne – she’s one of the best on-ball defenders in the country, and she did very well at our place (guarding McDonald).”

Down 15 and facing its largest halftime deficit of the season, UCLA came out and scored on its first two possessions of the second half to cut the deficit to 11. This was the closest the Bruins ever got to the Wildcats in the second half, however, as UCLA went just 1-of-16 the rest of the third quarter.

Junior forward Michaela Onyenwere – UCLA’s leading scorer – still put up 17 points on 5-of-14 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds.

The Bruins once again trailed early, down 24-15 in the second quarter, against the Sun Devils on Sunday.

Osborne scored 10 of her 15 total points in the third quarter, as UCLA outscored Arizona State 20 to 10 to take the lead. She chimed in with six rebounds in 33 minutes.

“Going out at halftime, the coaches just told me to keep shooting,” Osborne said. “I wasn’t shooting too hot in the first half. I knew that we needed to pick it up, so I just tried to do what I do.”

Redshirt senior guard Japreece Dean bounced back from a 0-of-11 shooting night against Arizona to lead UCLA in scoring with 18 points on Sunday.

Dean said encouragement from coaches, teammates and former Bruin guard Jordin Canada – who reached out via text – helped her stay confident.

“(Canada) sent me a great gameday text today just encouraging me to go out there, be poised and kill it,” Dean said. “I really appreciate that about her. When I’m up, she’s there and when I’m down, she’s always there.”

Close inserted redshirt junior guard Natalie Chou into the starting lineup over the weekend in place of redshirt sophomore guard Lindsey Corsaro, who did not play Friday because of an illness and played 13 minutes Sunday. Chou had come off the bench for the Bruins in their preceding nine matches.

After averaging 7.5 points per game in her first 14 games of the season, Corsaro has failed to score in her last four outings, shooting a combined 0-of-15 from the field.

UCLA will next head on the road to face No. 6 Stanford and California on Friday and Sunday, respectively.