UCLA Women’s Hoops Welcomes Washington State to Pauley After Triple OT Thriller

The UCLA women’s basketball team returns home tonight to face the Washington State Cougars after sweeping the Arizona schools on the road last weekend.

Last Time Out

Last Sunday’s game wasn’t televised, but it probably should have been. That’s because it was a triple overtime thriller that UCLA finally won, 98-93.

Four Bruins finished the game in double figures. Michaela Onyenwere led the team with 28 points while Japreece Dean had 26 before fouling out. Lajahna Drummer finished with 18 and Kennedy Burke had 16. Both Onyenwere and Drummer had double-doubles in this one as Drummer led UCLA with 17 rebounds and Onyenwere grabbed 13.

This game was close from the opening tip as neither team would ever lead by more than six points. The Bruins scored the first four points of the game to open up their biggest lead of the first quarter. There were three tied in the first quarter, but a layup by Burke with 43 second left gave UCLA a two-point lead at the end of one.

After another tie early in the second quarter, the Bruins retook the lead and expanded it to six points with 5:51 left in the half, 24-18. In the rest of the second quarter, Arizona outscored UCLA 15-6 to take a 33-30 lead into locker room.

After Lindsey Corsaro tied the game with a three-pointer early in the third quarter, the Wildcats went on a 5-0 run, giving them their biggest lead of the game. While UCLA wasn’t able to tie the game back up in the third, they did keep it close by scoring the same number of points in the quarter as Arizona did. As a result, the Wildcats maintained a three-point lead after three, 50-47.

The fourth quarter saw eight lead changes. With 1:35 left, Lucia Alonso hit a three to put Arizona up by two. Kennedy Burke responded by trying a three-pointer of her own, but she missed. Alonso had a chance to ice the game for the Wildcats but she missed a jumper that would have done that. Lajahna Drummer grabbed the rebound and Cori Close called timeout to set up the Bruins’ play. With five seconds left, Dean shot but she missed the layup. Onyenwere rebounded and put it through to tie the game 61-61 and send the game into overtime.

Onyenwere saved the Bruins again in the first overtime by scoring with sixteen seconds left to tie the game 71-71 and send it to double overtime. In the second overtime, UCLA jumped out to a five-point lead, but Arizona came back to tie the game 78-78. The Bruins retook the lead and held onto it almost the rest of the way. With five seconds left in double OT, the Bruins had an 84-81 lead, but Aari McDonald nailed a three for Arizona and the game was off to triple overtime.

In the third overtime, Arizona jumped out to a 89-86 lead, but Onyenwere hit the front end of a pair of free throws to cut the lead to two. Dean tied it back up 89-89 with a rebound of a Kennedy Burke miss. On top of that, Dean was fouled and she completed the three-point play to put the Bruins up for good and UCLA went on to win, 98-93.

Washington State Cougars

On Wednesday night, the UCLA men’s basketball team topped Washington State’s men’s team. But the men’s team may not be the worst team on the Washington State campus. The women’s team does have a slightly better conference record than the men do, but, at 2-7 in conference play, it’s not by much.

Outlook

UCLA should win tonight’s game easily.

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


Go Bruins!!!