UCLA Women’s Basketball Returns Home Looking to Upset #10 Oregon State

Tonight, the UCLA women’s basketball team hosts the #10 Oregon State Beavers at 7 pm PT at Pauley Pavilion.

Last Time Out

On Sunday, the Bruins faced the #6 Stanford Cardinal on the road in Northern California and the unranked Bruins almost pulled off an upset.

In the first two and a half minutes of the game, the Cardinal scored on a pair of three-pointers by Alyssa Jerome and Kiana Williams as Stanford took a 6-4 lead. Kennedy Burke tied it up with a layup and the Bruins never trailed again in the first quarter. In fact, that layup was the start of a 13-0 run by UCLA which included a three from Burke and two threes from Japreece Dean. That gave UCLA their biggest lead of the quarter as the Bruins led 17-6. Over the final 4:39 of the quarter, the Cardinal chipped away at that UCLA lead and managed to cut it to just one by the end of the period and UCLA led 24-23.

Stanford retook the lead early in the second quarter, but the Bruins quickly tied it back up at 26-26 on a jumper by Dean. That triggered a 12-0 run that gave UCLA a 10-point lead, 36-26. With just over three minutes left in the half, Lindsey Corsaro hit a three that pushed the UCLA lead to 12, 43-31. The Cardinal was able to chip away at that lead a little before the half and the Bruins took a seven-point lead into the locker room at the break.

But the third quarter belonged to Stanford. The Cardinal outscored UCLA 24-8 over the first seven and a half minutes of the quarter and flipped a seven-point halftime deficit into a nine-point advantage. In the final 2:30 of the third quarter, the Bruins were able to cut the Stanford lead back down to seven as the Cardinal took a 64-57 lead into the final quarter.

Stanford stretched their lead to 11 twice in the fourth and still led by 10 with 8:14 to go. But the Bruins weren’t done yet. UCLA went on an 11-3 run to cut the gap to just two points and Stanford led 75-73 with 2:26 left. Unfortunately, unlike last night’s men’s game, that was as close as the Bruins got and Stanford pulled off an 86-80 win.

#10 Oregon State Beavers

The Beavers have only lost two games so far this season. One of their losses came to #1 Notre Dame while the other came against unranked Texas A&M. Both games were neutral site games. The fact that they were games played away from Gill Coliseum, combined with the Bruins’ strong showing against Stanford last Sunday, means that UCLA has a chance to pull off an upset at home tonight.

The Beavers have three players averaging in double figures. Redshirt sophomore guard Destiny Slocum leads the team with 15.1 points per game. Junior guard Mikayla Pivec is second on the Beavers with an average of 13.9 ppg while junior guard Kat Tudor is averaging 12.3 ppg and leads Oregon State with 40 three-pointers made. Pivec is the Beavers’ leading rebounder with an average of 8.7 per game.

Despite the offensive production from Tudor, don’t look for her to start. The rest of Oregon State’s starters are junior guards Madison Washington and Katie McWilliams along with sophomore forward Taya Corosdale.

Outlook

The key to a UCLA victory tonight is defense. If the Bruins can hold Oregon State’s offense in check, the Bruins could pull off the upset.

After watching last Sunday’s game against Stanford, I think the Bruins will pull off the upset, 80-78.

This is your UCLA women’s basketball vs. Oregon State open thread.


Go Bruins!!!