Women’s basketball prevails in overtime against Washington State

This post was updated Jan. 18 at 10:41 p.m.

For the first time this season, the Bruins needed an extra period to pick up a victory.

Despite only scoring five points in the fourth quarter, then-No. 8 UCLA women’s basketball (8-2, 6-2 Pac-12) defeated then-No. 25 Washington State 68-66 (7-3, 5-3) after a last-second layup by Cougar guard Krystal Leger-Walker sent the game into overtime in Pauley Pavilion.

With the Bruins leading 53-50 with two seconds left in the fourth quarter, coach Cori Close said she devised a game plan she believed would be the most effective, but the Bruins were not able to execute it to its entirety.

Sophomore guard Charisma Osborne denied the ball on the inbounds, resulting in a foul that put Washington State guard Charlisse Leger-Walker on the line. This was part of the plan, according to Close, but UCLA didn’t finish it, allowing an offensive rebound after Charlisse Leger-Walker missed the second foul shot, with a putback then tying the game.

“(Osborne) did exactly what we said – we said, ‘Work really hard to deny the ball, and if you foul, great,'” Close said. “We talked about it as a staff, ‘Do we want to foul and put them on the line and get a box out?’ And that’s what we went with, and we didn’t get it.”

Osborne scored 28 points, her second-highest total this season – 11 of which were scored in overtime. Charlisse Leger-Walker paced Washington State with 18 points as her team was held to 41% from the field in the contest.

Osborne said her team was able to get good shots in the fourth quarter, but they just were not finding the bottom of the net.

Although the Bruins led the contest 48-35 going into the final frame, the team made just one field goal in the fourth period, shooting 1-of-16 and allowing the Cougars to close the gap.

Because of the low-scoring fourth quarter, Osborne said she was encouraged by her teammates to step up during overtime.

“(Senior forward) Lauryn Miller pulled me aside and was like, ‘These are your moments. You can step up and be big for us,’” Osborne said. “I think that really encouraged me to shoot those shots and be confident.”

After being named Pac-12 Player of the Week following a career-high scoring performance against Utah, redshirt senior guard Natalie Chou was UCLA’s second-highest scorer of the game with 15 points. Shooting 6-of-10 from the field and 1-of-2 from the 3-point line, Chou said she wanted to be consistent and effective for her team.

“A lot of it went down to my mental training,” Chou said. “I didn’t want the highs to get too high and the lows to get too low and just play neutral and do whatever my team needed to get the win.”

Although the Bruins have not been able to physically train like how they would under normal circumstances, Close said her focus has been on creating strong mindsets for the players.

“All of our work on mental conditioning and mental training and neutral thinking – I truly believe that has made the difference with all of our wins,” Close said.

However, Close mentioned that when her team experienced long scoring droughts like those in the fourth quarter, it was important to get stops on defense. Close commended sophomore guard Camryn Brown for bringing her strong work ethic and aggression despite her team giving up 18 fourth-quarter points to Washington State amid its own offensive struggles.

“(Brown) just was making every hustle play, every passion play – the nonstatistical things that really, I think, lead to momentum shifts,” Close said.

UCLA is scheduled to play No. 5 Stanford on Friday at 7 p.m. in Santa Cruz.