UCLA women’s basketball fails to keep pace with Wildcats in loss to No. 8 Arizona

This post was updated Jan. 26 at 8:28 p.m.

With 4:35 remaining in the third quarter and the Wildcats in the midst of an 11-0 run, the Bruins’ leading scorer went down with an injury.

After junior guard Charisma Osborne was carried off the floor against the 2021 NCAA tournament runners-up, her team fell just short of getting its first ranked victory of the season.

UCLA women’s basketball (9-5, 4-2 Pac-12) blew a 13-point first quarter lead before falling to No. 8 Arizona (15-2, 5-2) by a score of 74-63 to end a four-game win streak. The Bruins took an early lead despite missing graduate student guard Jaelynn Penn for the third straight game, but the loss of her starting backcourt mate was too much for them to overcome in their first loss at Pauley Pavilion this season.

However, coach Cori Close didn’t use injuries as an excuse and said her team will have to find ways to reach the program’s lofty expectations.

“We have lots of respect for Arizona, but we also have a lot of expectations for ourselves, and we’re just not going to lower the bar,” Close said. “I don’t care who’s up, next woman up, but the bar’s just not getting lowered and we just (have to) figure out different ways than we expected to raise up to that standard.”

UCLA jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first five minutes of the contest and forced Arizona to miss its first nine shots while committing a turnover. By the end of the quarter, the Wildcats had more turnovers than made field goals, with four first-quarter turnovers while shooting 3-of-18 from the floor.

After gaining the early advantage, UCLA was met with a full-court press from Arizona. Rather than using Osborne to break the press, graduate student forward IImar’I Thomas – the tallest player in the Bruins’ starting lineup – went coast-to-coast on multiple occasions and scored eight points on 4-of-6 shooting in the quarter.

Thomas said her new role as a primary ball-handler was a part of the game plan to handle Arizona’s high level of defensive pressure.

“That was the plan. We knew that they were a great defensive team, so we were going to have to try to break that press,” Thomas said. “They’re great, their press is great, so we just really knew that we needed to begin with that.”

UCLA relied on its shooting to overcome five turnovers of its own in the first period. The Bruins shot 8-of-14 from the field, including a perfect 3-of-3 from behind the arc. 

The Wildcats aren’t unfamiliar with slow starts – they were outscored 17-7 in the first quarter of their previous game against then-No. 22 Colorado. However, they went on to outscore the Buffaloes 68-39 in the next three quarters en route to a 75-56 win.

Following the slow start Wednesday, Arizona responded once again by outscoring UCLA 24-17 in the second quarter to cut its deficit to four by halftime. The Wildcats used an 11-1 run – including three buckets from Arizona forward Cate Reese – over a three-minute span midway through the period to cut the lead to 26-23 before both teams traded baskets for the remainder of the half. 

Close said the Wildcats’ veteran experience and deep bench are what allows them to overcome slow starts.

“They press and they bring in wave after wave (of substitutes) – they’re like a hockey team,” Close said. “They turn you over, it gives (them) energy, it gives (them) momentum. They have those sort of experiences to draw from mentally and emotionally, so you could tell they weren’t rattled.”

Arizona continued the full-court press in the second half and found success with the defensive strategy. The Wildcats forced three turnovers in the first five minutes of the third quarter and used an 8-0 run in just over a minute to gain their first lead of the game and push the advantage to five.

The final 3-pointer of that run came against four UCLA defenders as Osborne went down with a lower leg injury on the other end of the floor. Arizona went on to outscore the blue and gold 27-21 after her injury.

Holding a 49-48 lead heading into the fourth, Arizona missed six of its first seven shots and went more than three minutes without scoring a field goal. However, the Wildcats converted 13 of 15 free throws in the final frame to hold on to the lead and secure the win.

Despite being outscored 12-0 in the final four minutes and 12 seconds of the game, redshirt senior guard Chantel Horvat – who recorded season highs in minutes, points and rebounds with 23, 11 and seven, respectively – said she hopes her team can turn the loss into a positive.

“Adversity struck and other players had to step up, and we kept fighting until the end,” Horvat said. “I just hope we take away from this game things that we need to work on as well as a belief in us.”