Stanford Storms Ahead, Gets Better of UCLA Women's Basketball in Blowout
Even though the Cardinal came into the contest without two of their top-three scorers, the Bruins were no match for their high-powered conference rivals.
UCLA women's basketball (9-8, 4-5 Pac-12) fell to No. 2 Stanford (17-3, 8-0) 76-48 on Thursday night, losing each and every quarter en route to a fourth-straight defeat. The Bruins actually went up early and led a close game for the opening six minutes, only to get run off their own home court in a 28-point defeat.
The Cardinal got a 20-point double-double out of forward Francesca Belibi, forward Cameron Brink nearly got one of her own with 17 points and eight rebounds on 70% shooting and guard Lexi Hull used four 3-pointers to get her to 14 points and 10 boards.
The performances were not quite as eye-popping on the UCLA side, as the standout performer was more notable for simply appearing rather than her statistics.
Guard Charisma Osborne had missed the past few games with an ankle injury, causing the Bruins to go under the required minimum number of players and forfeiting against Oregon. The team's injury woes weren't solved overnight – forward Brynn Masikewich was inactive after making her first two appearances of the season last weekend – but Osborne's return was a step back to normal for coach Cori Close's perpetually shorthanded squad.
Osborne led UCLA with 12 points, although she was just 5-of-15 shooting from the field and 2-of-7 from deep. As a team, the Bruins followed Osborne's inefficient lead by shooting 31.7% from the field, 33.3% from 3 and 37.5% from the free throw line. Guards Natalie Chou, Chantel Horvat and Camryn Brown put up 11, 10 and six points, respectively, while shooting 11-of-22 between the three of them, but the other four Bruins who played tallied nine total points on 3-of-23 shooting.
Despite all of that, UCLA actually held a lead early on, holding on tight in a back-and-forth scoring battle through the first six minutes. Then Stanford caught fire from deep, drilling four 3-pointers to end the first quarter and go up 22-14.
Guard Dominique Onu hit a triple towards the end of the frame, then Osborne opened up the second with a 3-ball of her own. The barrage of long balls kept coming from both sides, as four of the Cardinal's seven field goals in the second quarter came from beyond the arc.
All three of the Bruins' made field goals in the second were 3s, but that had more to do with missing all five 2s they took in that quarter than it did with being highly efficient from deep.
The string of 11-straight missed 2-pointers finally came to a close in the third, but after going into halftime down 40-24, UCLA was already in quite the hole by then.
Things only got further out of control in the second half, as the Bruins wound up going down by as many as 36 points before ending the game on an 11-3 run courtesy of three more 3-pointers. Forward IImar'I Thomas played the entire third and fourth quarters, with forward Izzy Anstey suffering an injury in the first half and not coming back in for the second half.
In that time, Thomas went 0-of-5 after going a perfect 1-of-1 in the first half. Thomas entered the game averaging 15.8 points per game, leading UCLA in total points on the season, but posted a season-low three on Thursday while breaking her streak of 11-straight games in double figures.
UCLA will get a chance to stop its recent skid and get back on track against Cal on Sunday, with that game set to tip off at 12 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion.
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