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Flipped script denies UCLA women’s basketball Pac-12 championship title in upset

Freshman guard Kiki Rice is double-teamed and stripped of the ball. Rice posted a 13-point performance on Sunday afternoon to follow her career-high 22 point total in Friday night’s contest against Stanford. (Shengfeng Chien/Daily Bruin staff)

Women’s Basketball


No. 5 seed UCLA61
No. 7 seed Washington State65

By Grace Whitaker

March 5, 2023 4:59 p.m.

This post was updated March 5 at 11:55 p.m.

On Feb. 23, guard Charisma Osborne left the court in tears during her second-to-last regular-season home game after being upset by the unranked Cougars. 

Exactly 10 days later, the same team would claw the Pac-12 tournament title from the Bruins’ hands, stripping the senior of any hope at being crowned the champions. 

“We always say that you have to choose the pain of regret or the pain of discipline,” said coach Cori Close. “And right now, we’re gonna have to learn from some of the pain of regret.”

With the opportunity for the first Close-era championship, No. 5 seed UCLA women’s basketball (25-9, 13-8 Pac-12) fell to No. 7 seed Washington State (24-10, 10-9) in the Pac-12 tournament championship by a score of 65-61, disproving the age-old adage: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Despite 13 lead changes throughout the contest, the Cougars earned the title backed by a 54% field goal percentage and a 64% clip from deep. 

With the victory, Washington State made history as the first women’s team from the school to win a Pac-12 title.

With less than five minutes remaining and the Bruins down six, it appeared they might squander the Pac-12 tournament title for the second time in the last three seasons as the Cougars earned a game-high lead of eight points.

Until Osborne had something to say about it, responding with two back-to-back scoring plays. 

Graduate student guard Gina Conti put an exclamation point on Osborne’s charge with a 3-pointer to cut the Washington State lead to four points with a minute and a half remaining. In the midst of the blue and gold’s battle for the confetti, Osborne drew a foul and sank both her opportunities from the charity stripe. 

However, on the other end of the court, center Bella Murekatete – who finished with 21 points – sank both with 38 seconds to go. Then, so did freshman guard Kiki Rice. 

But Cougar guard Charlisse Leger-Walker split her free throws and handed UCLA the ball with 20 seconds to go and the Bruins down three. 

Osborne launched a prayer from behind the arc, but it was no good. A jump ball on the ensuing rebound granted the possession – and the game – to the Cougars. 

“(The) further you get on in March – tournament time – you can’t really take plays off,” Rice said. “There were a few possessions in the beginning and just throughout the game that we didn’t execute properly, and we weren’t really on our A-game.”

Senior guard Charisma Osborne fights for possession. Osborne paced the Bruins with 19 points in her second Pac-12 tournament title game in the past three years. (Shengfeng Chien/Daily Bruin staff)

The teams’ fight for the chip was evident from the first possession of the ball. 

Immediately after senior guard Camryn Brown won the tip, redshirt sophomore forward Emily Bessoir sank a sideline jumper and would add to her efforts with a 3-pointer less than two minutes later. On the other end of the court, the Cougars found both of their first two baskets as a result of second-chance points. 

Coach Cori Close shortly thereafter implored her bench – the leading offensive rebounding team in the conference – to “box out.” 

After ending their timeout discussion with a “rebound” chant, the Bruins would not allow the Cougars another offensive board until the very last play of the quarter. Instead, Bessoir would find a three-point play of her own to grant her team the lead once again, this time by three points. 

At the end of the first quarter, the Bruins led 18-14 and also maintained an offensive rebounding advantage of 7-3 after Close’s pleas.

After an initial score from freshman forward Lina Sontag, the Cougars went on an 8-3 run and slashed the Bruins’ lead to one. Drawing the foul on a drive to the basket, Washington State guard Charlisse Leger-Walker would sink both of her free throws and grant her team their first lead of the quarter.

Prior to heading into the locker room, Leger-Walker drilled her third 3-pointer of the contest to extend Washington State’s lead to four points at the halfway mark. 

The Bruins wouldn’t trail for long, though.

Bessoir scored the first points of the second half off her second 3-pointer of the game. Followed by an immediate defensive stop, Rice drove to the basket and gave her team the lead two and a half minutes into the third quarter. 

The lead would continue to oscillate between the two teams as no opponent held a lead larger than four points for the entire quarter. At the end of the third, however, Washington State assumed a two-point lead.

The Cougars would maintain the lead down the stretch to ultimately make history as the lowest-seeded tournament championship winner in Pac-12 history.

Osborne – who earned All-Tournament Team honors alongside Rice and Bessoir – emphasized that despite the loss, this week’s style of play will assist the team come time for the NCAA tournament.

“It’ll help us a lot, especially because (in) the Pac-12, there’s so many different styles of play,” Osborne said. “In the NCAA tournament, you don’t have that many days, and you have to be able to prepare really quickly.”

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Grace Whitaker | Sports senior staff
Whitaker is currently a senior staff writer on the football, men's basketball and women's basketball beats. She was previously an assistant Sports editor on the women's basketball, women's soccer, beach volleyball and cross country beats and a contributor on the women's basketball and beach volleyball beats.
Whitaker is currently a senior staff writer on the football, men's basketball and women's basketball beats. She was previously an assistant Sports editor on the women's basketball, women's soccer, beach volleyball and cross country beats and a contributor on the women's basketball and beach volleyball beats.
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