Charisma Osborne, UCLA Women's Basketball Beat Troy in Shootout

The Bruins led from start to finish Sunday night, closing out their season-opening homestand with another big win.

UCLA women's basketball (3-0) beat Troy (2-1) 95-83 at Pauley Pavilion, but the final score was not indicative of how competitive the game really was. The Bruins led by as many as 27 points in the fourth quarter, having steadily increased their lead from the opening tip, and the Trojans simply closed the afternoon on a 21-6 run.

Troy also attempted 42 free throws, hitting 27 of them, to help ease the ineffectiveness of their 31% shooting from the field.

UCLA, on the other hand, scored 20-plus in every quarter and finished the day shooting 43% from the field. Five Bruins ended the game in double figures, with guard Charisma Osborne leading the way with 29 points and 10 rebounds.

It was the newcomers who got the ball rolling for UCLA, though, as freshman guard Kiki Rice hit the first field goal of the day for either side. Guard Gina Conti – who missed all of last season with an injury after transferring in from Wake Forest – was the next to score, and then freshman guard Gabriela Jaquez hit a 3-pointer to make it 7-0 early.

Osborne hit a triple and a layup on back-to-back possessions later in the first quarter as part of a 14-4 run, which was capped off by an and-1 from freshman guard Londynn Jones.

From there, the two sides traded runs, with the Bruins staying ahead through it all.

The Trojans staged a 6-0 run to end the opening frame, then started the second with five more unanswered. After Troy wiped out a Conti 3-pointer with one of their own not long after, UCLA held them off the scoreboard for nearly five minutes while building the lead back up to 13.

The last four minutes of the half belonged to the Trojans, though, and the Bruins' lead got trimmed back down to 44-36 heading into the break.

UCLA and Troy traded points for most of the third quarter, as neither side scored more than five points in a row for the entire period. There was a stretch where Osborne scored 11 out of 13 for the Bruins, keeping them ahead by double digits all the way through and even making it an 18-point game with a layup late in the quarter.

Jaquez, Osborne, Rice, Conti and Jones all got shots to fall in the fourth, gifting UCLA an 89-62 lead as Troy's shots stopped falling.

The Trojans did close the game on a big run, however, getting 11 of their final 27 points from the free throw line to do so. They trimmed a 27-point advantage into an 11-point gap in a span of three minutes, but Jones hit a late 3-pointer to prevent them from ever getting within single digits.

Outside of Osborne's team-leading double-double, Rice was the next biggest standout in the box score with 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Jones and Jaquez both finished with 11 points, while Conti ended the afternoon with 10.

UCLA will return to the court Saturday against North Dakota State as part of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. The Bruins will play three games in three days in the second-ever women's tournament at the event.

Follow Connon on Twitter at @SamConnon
Follow All Bruins on Twitter at @FN_AllBruins
Like All Bruins on Facebook at @FN.AllBruins
Subscribe to All Bruins on YouTube

Read more UCLA stories: UCLA Bruins on Sports Illustrated
Read more UCLA women's basketball stories: UCLA Women's Basketball on Sports Illustrated

Add us as a preferred source on Google