The UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team’s thrilling run through the Pac-12 tournament fell short as they lost 61-65 in the championship game against the Washington State Cougars.
Bruins senior guard Charisma Osborne scored 19 points and forwards Emily Bessoir and Gabriela Jaquez made five rebounds each. Cougars junior guard Charlisse Leger-Walker scored 23 points and sophomore Tara Wallack made eight rebounds.
Leger-Walker was one of two Cougars to score over 20 points as senior center Bella Murekatete dropped 21 points. The game remained close until the fourth quarter when the Cougars made a 6-2 run, leaving the Bruins to play catch-up for the rest of regulation.
UCLA struggled from the perimeter, going 5-19 in three-point shots. WSU shot at 52.7 percent from the field and 63.6 percent in three-point shots.
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“The margin for error in these games is so small,” said UCLA head coach Cori Close. “They out-executed us and then got easier shots, either at the rim or open three.”
This year marks the first time both teams in the Pac-12 tournament championship were not top-four teams. The Bruins were the fifth seed and WSU was the seventh seed.
UCLA made a strong campaign throughout the tournament, in the semifinals, they defeated the top-seeded Stanford Cardinal 69-65. Freshman guard Kiki Rice made a career-high of 22 points in the bout.
“We said “we’re gonna give it our all and we’re gonna go down fighting,” Rice said after the semifinals. “I think we were gonna be okay if it didn’t go our way but we gave it all we had … we really just needed to come together, play hard and it all ended up working out for us.”
Osborne and Bessoir dished out 18 points each against the Arizona Wildcats to win 73-59. The Bruins took care of the ball, making 17 second-chance points and scoring 17 points off of turnovers.
In the first round, the Bruins defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils 81-70 in overtime, scoring 19 points in their final phase. Bessoir led with 17 points and nine rebounds. Osborne added 16 points in the bout.
