(Photo Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)
UCLA Women's Basketball Beats Oregon State, Advances to WNIT Semifinals
The Bruins will live to fight another day.
UCLA women's basketball (18-12, 8-8 Pac-12) went up to Corvallis and came away with a win over Oregon State (17-14, 6-9), sending them to the semifinals of the WNIT in the process. Dating back to when the Bruins won the whole thing back in 2015, UCLA has now won 10 WNIT contests in a row.
Just boiling it down to this season, the Bruins are on their hottest stretch of the year, now having won seven out of their last eight.
UCLA was able to pick up its most recent win in a much different way than it picked up its round of 16 win over Wyoming, which took three overtimes and featured countless lead changes.
There was only one lead change Sunday in Corvallis, and it occurred just over three minutes into the game.
The Beavers hit their first two shots of the afternoon, but back-to-back 3-pointers by guard Charisma Osborne have the Bruins the lead. That quick burst by Osborne set off the rest of her teammates as well, all while Oregon State missed 10 of its next 11 attempts from the field.
UCLA strung together a 19-3 run to close the first quarter, with Osborne accounting for 10 points and guard Jaelynn Penn going for seven. A second-chance 3-pointer by forward Angela Dugalic made it a 24-7 lead for the Bruins early in the second frame.
Oregon State scored six in a row to battle its way back into things, only for Osborne and Penn to combine for another 7-0 run and stretch the lead to 18.
From there, the Bruins cooled down, only hitting two field goals in the final 6:30 of the half, both courtesy of Dugalic.
The double-digit lead was gone, and after the two sides traded buckets to open the third, the lead shrunk all the way down to five midway through that quarter. Someone other than Osborne, Penn or Dugalic finally got on the board, with forward IImar'I Thomas hitting some layups and guard Chantel Horvat converting on an and-1.
UCLA managed to go back up by 11, but saw that lead disappear yet again. Oregon State got it down to four and five at different points in the final quarter, but an and-1 by Thomas and a free throw by Dugalic inside of two minutes helped create the final cushion.
Osborne kept getting fouled, as she hit nine free throws inside the final 65 seconds to lock up the victory. That got her to 31 points on the night, 12 of which came from the charity stripe, and she also finished with 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks.
69 of UCLA's 74 points came from their top-four scorers, and the front-running Bruins are now one step closer to another WNIT title thanks to their first win in Corvallis since 2013.
The Bruins will play either South Dakota State or Alabama in the semifinals next week. Coach Cori Close said UCLA has put in a bid to host the contest.
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