UCLA Women’s Hoops Visits Arizona After Late Win Over ASU

Friday’s game against Arizona State proved to be more exciting than expected as UCLA beat the Sun Devils in dramatic fashion due to a three-pointer from Japreece Dean with just nine seconds left.

Today, UCLA travels to Tucson to take on the Arizona Wildcats at 1 pm PT.

Last Time Out

Dean may have been the hero of Friday’s game, but Lauryn Miller was the star. She led the Bruins with 17 points. Dean was second with 14 and Michaela Onyenwere added 11 points. Lajahna Drummer led the team with 11 rebounds.

As far as the game itself goes, the teams kept things close in the first quarter, even though UCLA led for most of the period. The biggest lead of the first quarter came with just over two minutes to go when a jumper from Miller gave the Bruins a five-point edge. But, that lead evaporated over the final two minutes and ASU was able to tie it up 12-12 as the quarter drew to a close.

The pendulum swung the other way in the second quarter as Arizona State went up by six with 1:49 left. When the teams went to the locker room, the Wildcats were up by five, 31-26.

The second half, however, belonged to UCLA. The Bruins spent the third quarter playing catch-up and that’s what they did. UCLA used the quarter dig themselves out from their halftime hole and the game was tied 44-44 after three.

Arizona State battled the Bruins for the lead early in the fourth and they won. With 2:20 left, Courney Ekmark scored to give the Sun Devils a 56-53 lead, but she was fouled on the play and her free throw made it a two-possession game. And, the Bruins got what they needed the remainder of the game. First, Dean hit a jumper to cut the lead to two. A three-pointer from Onyenwere gave UCLA a slim one-point lead, but Reili Richardson put Arizona State back on top until Dean hit her three with just nine seconds left to secure the win.

Arizona Wildcats

The Cats snapped their three-game losing streak on Friday when they beat Southern Cal, 71-68. In that game, Arizona used a 12-2 third quarter run to come back from three points down before going on to beat Southern Cal.

Arizona only has two players averaging in double figures. Aari McDonald leads the team with an average of 24.7 points per game while Cate Reese averages 12.3 ppg.

Outlook

With just two players averaging in double figures, it would seem that the key to this afternoon’s game is stopping McDonald. If UCLA can do that, they should be able to pull off the weekend sweep.

This is your UCLA at Arizona women’s basketball open thread.


Go Bruins!!!