Early Lead Wasted By UCLA Women's Basketball, Colorado Recovers to Remain Undefeated

The Bruins took control in the opening frame before falling behind in their first game in nearly a month.

A hot start didn't do the Bruins many favors, as the Buffaloes took control and kept the visiting blue and gold an arm's length away for the rest of the afternoon.

UCLA women's basketball (5-4, 0-1 Pac-12) was unable to pull off a road upset over Colorado (13-0, 2-0) on Sunday, losing 71-63. The teams were only separated by double digits for a mere seven seconds throughout the entire contest, but the Bruins only led for 15 seconds after the opening moments of the second quarter.

The game worked almost as a mirror to the UCLA men's basketball game Thursday night in those Bruins' return from a 26-day COVID-19 hiatus, when that team started cold and then ran away with a win in the second half. The women's team, coming off of a 29-day break, had the opposite happen Sunday, coughing away an early lead en route to an eventual loss.

The Buffaloes actually wound up with the lower field goal percentage of the two teams by the time the final buzzer sounded – shooting 35.8% compared to the Bruins' 37.9% – but they also hit 11 more free throws and won the points off turnovers battle 17-6.

Forward Izzy Anstey led UCLA with four turnovers, while guard Jaelynn Penn had three and forward IImar'I Thomas had two, and they gave away four team turnovers on top of those individual giveaways. Thomas, Penn, guard Natalie Chou and guard Charisma Osborne all scored in double figures, but they all did so boasting negative plus/minuses.

The Bruins stormed out to a 12-5 lead in the first quarter, leading for the entire frame and holding the Buffaloes to just 2-of-12 shooting from the field. A couple Colorado free throws and a 3-pointer by guard Frida Formann made it a one-possession game before the end of the first, though, and the Buffaloes wound up extending that into a 12-0 run early in the second.

UCLA tied it up four times in the next two quarters, but was unable to convert its short bursts into leads. Even when Chou finally put the Bruins up 40-39 with a pair of free throws late in the third, guard Jaylyn Sherrod answered on the other end with a big 3-pointer.

Sherrod hit two free throws of her own to make it a four-point game again, and that's how the Buffaloes had managed to stay ahead for so long – to that point, Colorado had made 15 free throws compared to UCLA's six.

Anstey got to the line not much later, but went 1-of-2 and only cut the lead down to three. Formann again came through with a big 3 after a turnover by Thomas, and the Bruins went into the final quarter trailing by six.

UCLA was unable to make up any real ground in the fourth, only getting the deficit down to four before Formann nailed another 3 with 2:36 left on the clock.

The Bruins will get back on the court Friday against Washington. That game will tip off at Pauley Pavilion at 7 p.m.

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