UCLA women’s basketball falls to undefeated Colorado in conference opener

This post was updated Jan. 9 at 2:03 p.m.

In their first conference game of the season, the Bruins were unable to hand a Pac-12 foe their first loss of the season.

After six consecutive cancellations or postponements because of COVID-19 protocols since its last game on Dec. 11, UCLA women’s basketball (5-4, 0-1 Pac-12) fell to Colorado (13-0, 2-0) by a score of 71-63. Coming into the game having won 10 straight games against the Buffaloes, the Bruins fell to the black and gold for the first time since 2014.

“It’s just so frustrating,” said coach Cori Close. “We knew it was going to be hard, and we knew we had to really dig deep. … No excuses, adversity’s happening to everyone. We’re going to let this game hurt us, but we’re going to learn from it and move on.”

After junior guard Charisma Osborne got things started with a layup less than a minute into the game, both teams went scoreless for the next 5 minutes and 11 seconds of gametime, missing a combined 11 field goals across that span. 

Graduate student guard Natalie Chou broke the scoring drought with a 3-pointer before both teams traded baskets, after which graduate student guard Jaelynn Penn hit a long-range shot of her own to give the Bruins a 12-5 lead with just over a minute remaining in the opening frame. The seven-point deficit was the largest of the season for a Buffaloes team that had won all but one of their games this season by double digits coming into the matchup.

The early lead for the blue and gold came following a 29-day break. After dealing with COVID-19 delays while on the team last season, Chou said this hiatus was unique but allowed the team to improve despite a lack of game action.

“It was really interesting, something that I’ve never had to encounter or experience,” Chou said. “But we had a lot of practices and had a lot of opportunities to learn and grow throughout that time that we didn’t have games.”

But Colorado responded to its first losing quarter of the season with a 12-0 run that began after Penn’s 3-pointer and stretched into the opening minutes of the second quarter. Buffalo guard Jaylyn Sherrod – who finished the matchup with a game-high 25 points – gave her team its first lead with one of her 13 made free throws with 8:35 left in the period. 

Penn ended the Colorado run with her second 3-pointer of the half, but the Bruins were unable to regain the lead for the remainder of the quarter. The blue and gold were held to 4-of-13 shooting from the field and turned the ball over four times in a second quarter in which they were outscored 18-13.

The Bruins entered their first Pac-12 contest with Osborne and graduate student forward IImar’I Thomas ranking second and third in the conference in scoring, at 19.6 and 18 points per game, respectively. While Osborne scored eight points on 4-of-12 shooting through the first two periods, Thomas was held scoreless in a half for the first time this season and attempted her lone shot of the first 20 minutes with seven seconds left in the second quarter.

Close said the lack of aggressiveness offensively is something Thomas will need to address in order to help her team moving forward.

“That will be a great conversation that I’m going to get to have with (Thomas) … because we need her,” Close said. “They were doubling her when she did get the ball in the low post some, but there’s a lot of actions that we have to get her shots, and I think she let her aggression level go down.”

With UCLA trailing 28-25 at the halftime break, Thomas responded with seven straight points on three made field goals to open the third quarter. But aside from Thomas, the remaining Bruins shot a combined 3-of-12 from the field and the team committed another four turnovers in the quarter before entering the final frame trailing 47-41.

After playing in her first game against a Pac-12 opponent as a Bruin, Thomas said preparation wasn’t the issue that led to her team’s defeat.

“It was a great experience even though we didn’t have the outcome that we wanted,” Thomas said. “I know every game that I have in this conference is going to be tough. … I’m just trying to come prepared. Today, our coach prepared us really well. We just have to execute better.”

Despite keeping the game close throughout the fourth quarter, UCLA was unable to overcome two personnel losses sustained in the period. Shortly after redshirt senior guard Kayla Owens fouled out of the game following a technical foul, Osborne sustained an ankle injury with 4:38 left in the quarter and did not return for the remainder of the game.

With the Bruins’ leading scorer out for most of the final period, Chou scored 10 of her team-leading 15 points in the final quarter. But nine more points on five more free throws from Sherrod in her career-high scoring day helped Colorado outscore UCLA for the third straight quarter to extend its undefeated start to the year and give the Bruins their second straight loss.

“We all knew that we needed to come back stronger considering the fact that we had almost a month off, but we can’t make excuses for ourselves,” Thomas said. “We were prepared to win today, so we just have to keep improving and get back to where we were and know we can be.”