NCAA Tournament: Oklahoma Stages Historic Rally, but UCLA Pulls Away Late

The Sooners committed too many turnovers and found themselves down 18 in the first half, but rallied to take the lead before coming up short.

An historic rally fell short, but now stands as part of a lasting legacy left by Oklahoma’s departing seniors.

The No. 16-ranked Sooners staged a dramatic comeback Monday night against No. 14 UCLA but eventually just ran out of gas.

With a Sweet Sixteen trip on the line — it would have been the Sooners’ first in a decade — OU couldn’t scale the NCAA Tournament’s second-round wall in a 82-73 loss to UCLA in the Bruins’ historic Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

OU trailed by as many as 18 in the first half, but cut out the turnovers and scorched the nets in the third quarter to own a one-point lead going into the final period.

That’s when things went south for Jennie Baranczyk’s team in the fourth quarter, as Oklahoma went without a field goal for more 4 1/2 minutes and the Sooners’ season came to an end.

OU’s big rally produced a 54-50 lead in the final seconds of the third quarter, but the Bruins pulled back to a 59-55 lead early in the fourth and stretched that to double digits down the stretch. UCLA scored 29 points in the final period, 21 of those from the free throw line.

During the critical juncture of the fourth quarter, the Sooners managed only free throws and turnovers on 13 consecutive offensive possessions.

The Sooners, regular-season co-champions of the Big 12 Conference, committed too many turnovers (13 in the first half, 19 for the game) and couldn’t shoot early (they started 6-of-24 but got hot to finish 24-of-58, 41 percent) against the longer, more athletic Bruins of the Pac-12.

Oklahoma, the 5-seed in the Greenville Regional I, ends the season at 26-7 overall, while 4-seed UCLA advances to 26-9 and will face undefeated No. 1 seed South Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen.

The loss marks the final college game for OU’s decorated trio of seniors, Ana Llanusa, Taylor Robertson and Madi Williams.

That triumvirate played in a combined 411 games and scored 6,332 points and helped Baranczyk immediately stabilize the OU program with their steady and consistent contributions.

Llanusa sparked the Sooner rally with three 3s and finished with 15 points before fouling out. Williams led OU with 24 points and came to life late with 12 in the fourth quarter. Skylar Vann scored 14 on 4-of-13 shooting.

Robertson’s record-setting career came to an unceremonious end, as she finished with just two points and was 0-for-3 from 3-point range — breaking her streak of games with a 3 at 74 in a row. She finishes with 534 career 3-pointers.

UCLA got 36 points from senior Charisma Osborne and 14 from freshman Kiki Rice.

Oklahoma labored from the tip against the quick and lengthy Bruin defense, shooting just 5-of-14 and committing eight turnovers in the first quarter alone as UCLA led 21-14 after one period of play.

UCLA began to pull away in the early second quarter, using a 9-0 run to take a 28-14 lead and forcing Oklahoma into a timeout.

Osborne and Christeen Iwuala combined for three straight jumpers, the last one a deep Osborne 3-pointer on a kickout from Rice that pushed the Sooners into a 14-point hole.

The Bruins’ run extended to 13 unanswered points and gave UCLA a 32-14 lead with 7 1/2 minutes to go until halftime.

OU missed 18 of its first 24 field goal attempts, lowlighted by a scoreless stretch of more than 6 1/2 minutes that included four turnovers and five missed shots and pushed UCLA’s lead to 34-16.

The Sooners finally showed a spark on back-to-back possessions in the second quarter, with Nevaeh Tot and Kennedy Tucker each draining a corner 3 and cutting the Bruins’ lead to 34-22.

OU also cranked up the defense during that stretch, holding UCLA scoreless for 2 1/2 minutes to cut it to 34-23.

But the Sooners then turned the ball over on three straight possessions, resulting in an Osborne 3-pointer and a steal-and-layup by Osborne that padded UCLA’s lead back to 39-23.

Undeterred, Williams made two free throws and Llanusa sank a fast-break 3 on a catch-and-kick from Skylar Vann to cut it to 41-28 at halftime.

The Sooners had 13 turnovers at halftime and shot just 9-of-29 from the field. Only good perimeter shooting (5-of-11) gave Oklahoma a heartbeat. Meanwhile, UCLA was 17-of-36 from the floor and also made five 3s in the first half.

Robertson was 0-for-2 from distance at halftime as the Bruins denied her the basketball and chased her all over the floor.

Osborne, on the other hand, had 16 points at the break on a variety of shots, from fast-break layups to pick-and-pop 3s.

Things didn’t get immediately better for the Sooners after halftime, as OU opened the second half with back-to-back turnovers and fell into a 15-point deficit.

On the other end, Osborne converted consecutive reverse layups to quickly put UCLA up 47-32.

But those two early turnovers would be OU’s only two miscues of the third quarter.

Oklahoma came back to life with a sudden and unexpected 14-0 run, sparked by two 3s by Llanusa.

The first Llanusa trey preceded a tough layup inside by Williams that cut it to 10. Following the Bruins’ fourth straight turnover, a driving layup by Vann made it 47-39 with 4:31 to play in the third and forced UCLA into a timeout.

After the stoppage, Llanusa buried a 3 from the corner to make it 47-41, and Beatrice Culliton made a layup and two free throws to cut it to 47-46 at the 2:41 mark.

Kennady Tucker hit a quick bucket, and Llanusa’s stepback jumper with 1:40 on the clock gave the Sooners a 50-49 lead — their first since 5-4 in the early stages of the first quarter.