UCLA women’s basketball heads to Washington to challenge Cougars, Huskies

After snapping their longest losing streak of the season, the Bruins will head back on the road to the Evergreen State.

UCLA women’s basketball (10-8, 5-5 Pac-12) is set to play Washington State (14-7, 6-4) on Friday night in Pullman and Washington (5-11, 0-8) on Sunday afternoon in Seattle. The team is coming off its fifth conference win after splitting its homestand last week with a loss to No. 2 Stanford and a victory over California.

The Bruins hosted the Huskies and Cougars in Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 14 and Jan. 16, respectively, and picked up the first two victories in what would become a four game winning streak. Since then, however, UCLA has taken four conference losses in its last five matchups.

Washington State currently sits at fifth in the Pac-12 standings, just above the sixth-place blue and gold. The team won four of its past six games but lost its last two – including a 53-point defeat at the hands of No. 24 Oregon on Wednesday. The Cougars had the worst shooting performance in the Pac-12 this season in the loss, posting 17.5% from the field to put up 30 total points in the contest.

Coach Cori Close said regardless of Washington State’s defeat Wednesday, her team is still facing a formidable foe Friday and will not take its opponents for granted.

“They’re just so solid defensively,” Close said. “Every time you have a chance to beat an NCAA tournament-level team, you have to relish that opportunity and go for it, so I think this is going to demand that we step up.”

UCLA’s second opponent of the weekend, Washington, is still looking for its first conference win despite demonstrating a tendency to keep games close. Since falling to the Bruins by 15 points Jan. 14, the Huskies have lost all seven games but have recorded a single-digit average margin of defeat during the streak.

In UCLA’s first matchup with Washington this season, graduate student forward IImar’I Thomas, graduate student guard Jaelynn Penn and junior guard Charisma Osborne combined for 52 of the Bruins’ 63 points to help the team overcome a halftime deficit. While Penn sat out the last five games with a hand injury, Osborne played all 40 minutes against Cal a week after missing a contest because of an injury sustained against Arizona on Jan. 26.

Osborne said she is focused on staying healthy with off-court routines that help her feel ready to handle the significant minutes demanded of her lately.

“I do a lot of treatment and rehab with the athletic trainer, so that helps me out a lot,” Osborne said. “I’m always just icing and doing whatever I can to make sure that I’m healthy and ready to play.”

Osborne ranks second in the Pac-12 in scoring with 16.9 points per game, while Thomas is fifth with 15.8 per contest. The graduate transfer said her numbered days as a collegiate player and as a Bruin push her to prioritize her time and energy.

“As a fifth year, this being my last year, I don’t have time to give energy to the fact that we’re hurt or that we have other issues going on because you just have to move on to the next thing,” Thomas said. “I have limited time, so I think definitely that’s just been my mindset – onto the next thing and figure out a way to get better every day.”

After two Bruins made their first season appearances in the last week and a half, the team may benefit from another added player on the roster this weekend, according to Close. The Bruins are expecting the debut of redshirt freshman forward Angela Dugalić, who transferred to UCLA from Oregon prior to the season but sat out with a knee injury all year.

Close said the constant roster rotations and uncertainties with injuries have been challenging to manage, but her team remains unfazed.

“For sure it’s difficult,” Close said. “We will do difficult things well.”

UCLA tips off against Washington State at 7 p.m. on Friday and faces Washington at 12 p.m. on Sunday.