Westwood, CA – Protecting your home court is always a battle cry during the crosstown rivalry game. UCLA was able to creep back for a 61-60 women’s basketball victory of USC Women of Troy basketball team at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday afternoon.
UCLA was trailing by 4 points with 4:18 left on the game clock, when Charisma Osborne (20) kicks ball out to 6’4 forward Emily Bessoir (11) who drains a three pointer over the USC defense. This was a key basket on the Women’s Bruins fall back into the lead 55-54 after a steal and basket by Osborne.
UCLA guard Londynn Jones (3) lead the Bruins with 22 points in 26 minutes. Bessoir grabbed 5 rebounds while scoring double digits with 11 points.
“Being together I feel like is the biggest thing,” Jones said. “Knowing that we all have each other’s back through the highs and through the lows… that’s what sets us apart.”
Osborne was really active all game on both sides of the ball. She lead the team with 7 rebounds and dished out 4 assist, 9 points. Osborne digging deep late in the game after playing 37 minutes.
Bruins Coach Cori Close dialed up a great gameplan to move the Lady Bruins to 14-2 overall record and 3-1 in conference.
“Obviously a lot of really difficult moments,” Close said. “But when you have a selfless team and a neutral team, … we get ready for big moments when we need it. Londynn Jones was ready for that big moment.”
The Women of Troy were led by forward Rayah Marshall (13) who scored a shared team high 15 points, and 8 rebounds. Guard Kayla Williams (4) also scored 15 points that was almost enough to get the victory.
Okako Adika (24) played 39 minutes the most for both teams in this slug fest where she dropped 11 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
Now the Trojans move to 11-4 record and 1-3 in the PAC-12 games.
They will face the foes from the Bay area this up coming week a hard task to face No 2 Stanford and Cal. These next few weeks will be important for both teams as want a good seed in the PAC-12 tournament at the end of the season.
