#5 UCLA Women's Basketball Faces Washington State in a Friday Matinee
The Bruins will look to complete a sweep of the Cougars this afternoon.

When Washington State visited Pauley Pavilion a few weeks ago, the Bruins needed overtime to top the Cougars, 68-66. It was one of the Bruins’ five wins in an undefeated January. This afternoon, UCLA will look to sweep the season series when they visit Washington State.
Last Time Out
Last Friday, UCLA defeated Arizona State, 60-57, at home to finish off a perfect January. Sure, half of UCLA’s games which were scheduled were actually postponed, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Bruins haven’t lost in more than a month.
The Bruins got out to an uncharacteristic slow start against ASU by giving up the first four points of the game and they didn’t actually take the lead until Emily Bessoir put them up 6-5 with 6:27 left in the first quarter. But, during the rest of the quarter, UCLA did not give up a field goal as Arizona State only managed to score one more point on a free throw by Iris Mbulito. In fact, UCLA closed out the quarter on a 19-1 run.
The second quarter saw the Bruins expand their lead to as many as eighteen points with just under seven minutes to go in the half. However, the Sun Devils stormed back with five consecutive points to cut the lead to 13. The final six minutes of the half was pretty even and UCLA took a 12-point lead into the break, 33-21.
Now, some of you may have been tempted to turn the game off at that point. If you did, you missed a third quarter which was all Arizona State. The Sun Devils held the Bruins’ offense to just seven points in the third quarter while they lit up the scoreboard. In fact, with 1:59 left, ASU actually had a two-point lead, 40-38, which was their first lead since they led 5-4 early in the first quarter. Michaela Onyenwere scored two of her seven points to tie the game up at the end of the third quarter.
Then, Charisma Osborne took over. She hit three consecutive three-pointers and 13 of the Bruins’ first 14 points of the fourth quarter to put UCLA ahead 54-50 with 3:13 to go. She nearly doubled the 14 points she had through the first three quarters of the game. Down the stretch, UCLA looked to Emily Bessoir for their final six points to seal the 60-57 win.
Osborne led all scorers with 27 points while Bessoir finished with 12 points. Bessoir added seven rebounds to tie Natalie Chou for the game. Osborne had six boards.
Washington State Cougars
The Cougars have not been very good against Top Ten teams at home this season. So far this season, they have lost three of the four games they played at home against Top Ten teams, losing to Oregon and twice to Stanford while beating Arizona. The Cougs were probably happy to have last Sunday’s game against UC Berkeley postponed because four of their last seven games have gone to overtime, including their game against the Bruins on January 17.
So, today’s game could be another close one, but I still think UCLA comes out ahead today.
#5 UCLA Women’s Basketball (10-2, 8-2)
Opponent: Washington State Cougars (8-6, 6-5)
When: 12:00 Noon PT, Friday, February 5, 2021
Where: Beasley Coliseum, Pullman, WA
TV: None
Live Stream: Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app
Audio: UCLA Live Audio with Dave Marcus
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Official Game Preview
Go Bruins!
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