(Photo Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)
UCLA Women's Basketball Loses to South Dakota State in WNIT Semifinals
The Bruins' entire season came down to the last second.
UCLA women's basketball (18-13, 8-8 Pac-12) was trailing South Dakota State (28-9, 17-1 Sun Belt) by three points with 20 seconds to go. There had already been six lead changes and two ties in the final three minutes. For the Bruins to keep their season alive, they needed to convert from long range.
Coach Cori Close took a timeout with seven seconds left, and she drew up a play for their de facto leading scorer, guard Charisma Osborne.
Osborne collected the inbound from guard Natalie Chou, then bounced a pass to forward IImar'I Thomas, who ran a dribble handoff that went back to Osborne.
With time about to expire, Osborne pulled up for a straightaway 3. The attempt clanked off the front rim, making the All-Pac-12 Team member 0-for-6 from deep, and UCLA had lost 62-59.
A few possessions earlier, the Bruins had actually held the lead after hitting 7-of-8 shots from the field, including three consecutive 3-pointers from Thomas and guard Jaelynn Penn. But following that hot streak, UCLA missed its final four attempts of the night all while South Dakota State hit five in a row.
The many streaks on both ends were constant throughout the contest – the two sides were never separated by more than four points in the first quarter. The Bruins started to pull away in the second quarter, going up by as many as six points, but the Jackrabbits turned the tides in the final moments of the opening half.
Forward Izzy Anstey blocked a shot and ran a fast break the other way, in position to put UCLA up by three at the break. But Anstey got blocked from behind herself, and guard Tylee Irwin went coast-to-coast in five seconds for an and-1 at the buzzer that put South Dakota State up by two.
That five-point swing was erased in a matter of minutes in the third quarter, and the Bruins led for much of the way in that frame. Heading into the fourth, though, the Jackrabbits never let UCLA go back ahead until there was 2:27 left in the game.
That marked the start of the back-and-forth final moments, which ended in the Bruins falling behind and failing to make up the difference at the last second.
Osborne's final miss made her 3-of-16 from the field, the third time this season she shot below 20% from the field, and she finished the night with 11 points and eight assists. Thomas led the way with 24 points, but no other Bruin posted double-digit points.
Instead of advancing to the finals to face Seton Hall, UCLA will pack its bags and head home for the long offseason. Still, the Bruins were among the final eight Division I women’s basketball teams playing this late into the spring, making their offseason shorter than almost anyone else's in the country.
UCLA came one win short from maximizing its campaign and two shy of winning its second WNIT title in eight years, but the top recruiting class in the country is coming to Westwood in the fall and Close's program will be able to start fresh.
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