Women’s basketball secures victory over Arizona in penultimate regular-season match

This post was updated Feb. 24 at 9:17 p.m.

After sitting out of the Bruins’ most recent game Feb. 20, Charisma Osborne was a game-time decision Thursday evening.

The junior guard not only suited up but led the blue and gold to its first win over a ranked opponent this season.

Behind 18 points from Osborne and 16 – all in the second half – from graduate student forward IImar’I Thomas, UCLA women’s basketball (12-11, 7-8 Pac 12) defeated No. 12 Arizona (19-6, 9-6) by a score of 64-46 in Tucson. The duo, who came into the game ranked second and fourth in conference respectively, each recorded double-doubles with a combined 21 rebounds to help their team hand the Wildcats their first home loss of the season.

Osborne, the Pac-12’s second-leading scorer, said she was unsure if she would be cleared to play heading into the contest but wanted to come back and enjoy competing with her teammates.

“I actually didn’t know until today if I was going to be able to play or not,” Osborne said. “I was so excited to come back and play with (my teammates). We’ve been talking about just having fun and bringing joy and tonight, that’s what we did.”

Osborne led the Bruins with five of her 18 points in the first quarter and added another five in the first three minutes of the second period. UCLA relied on a 2-3 zone defense to hold Arizona to three field goals for six points through the first 8 ½ minutes of the game and a 3-of-12 start from the field.

After Osborne checked out for the first time with 5:29 left in the second quarter, graduate student guard Natalie Chou drove to the basket and finished contested left-handed layups on back-to-back possessions. The pair of scores capped a 6-0 Bruin run in 1:25 of game time to push the score to 26-17 – the biggest lead of the game to that point for the blue and gold.

“(Chou) was so big, I mean, just huge for us in everything that she did,” Thomas said. “We all have that confidence in her that we know she could go out every night and do that, and she’s really unstoppable on offense.”

Arizona responded with a quick 6-0 run of its own to cut the lead to three, while UCLA failed to convert a field-goal attempt in the final five minutes of the quarter. A steal and offensive rebound from Chou – the eighth offensive board of the half for the Bruins – led to two more points for the sixth-year guard at the free-throw line with 1:33 left in the half, but two more Wildcat scores cut UCLA’s lead to one heading into halftime, with the score sitting at 28-27.

UCLA’s stretch without a made field goal reached seven minutes before another offensive rebound led to a 3-pointer from graduate student guard Jaelynn Penn to regain the lead 8:16 into the third period.

The Bruins held onto that lead for the remainder of the game, outscoring the Wildcats 33-18 from that point on.

Penn’s make from long-range jump started an 18-7 UCLA run to end the third quarter. Thomas contributed six points and Osborne scored the final six points of the stretch to give the Bruins a 46-35 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

After being held scoreless in the first half on one field-goal attempt, Thomas followed her six-point third quarter with eight points in less than 2 ½ minutes into the final period. After a jumper from Chou pushed the score to 48-37 with 9:18 left in the game, Thomas sank a pair of free throws and converted three straight buckets to give UCLA a 56-40 lead with under seven minutes to play.

Coach Cori Close said she told Thomas to be more aggressive offensively and added that her six offensive rebounds were vital to the win.

“I just said, ‘Look, we need you to shoot the ball,’” Close said. “Her intensity and effort was so consistent, especially in the third quarter. If we missed, she got the (rebound). I thought this was by far her best rebounding game, …  without those rebounds, we wouldn’t have won the game.”

Arizona deployed a full-court press for the entire second half of the fourth quarter but managed two points in the final 4:16 of the game. In addition to outscoring the Wildcats 36-19 in the second half, the Bruins outrebounded their opponents 48-26 en route to the win.

Close said her team has re-instilled its confidence and it can match up well against anyone if it plays like it did today.

“(The players) believe a little deeper now – that encourages me as their coach,” Close said. “If they can just bottle that feeling that it’s under their control (midgame), I think I wouldn’t want to play (against) us.”