No. 10 UCLA Survives Late Rally to Beat Southern California

Charisma Osborne (20), Lauryn Miller (33), Emily Bessoir (11) and Michaela Onyenwere (21) of the UCLA Bruins celebrate a basket during the first half against the Texas Longhorns in the second round game of the 2021 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, on March 24, 2021. Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES—Emily Bessoir scored 16 points and No. 10 UCLA survived a late rally to beat Southern California 59–56 on Thursday night in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.

Charisma Osborne added 14 points and 13 rebounds and Kiki Rice scored 14 points for the Bruins (10-1), who won despite shooting 32.9% from the field.

Kadi Sissoko led the Trojans (9–1) with 20 points. Rayah Marshall had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Destiny Littleton added 10 points.

UCLA had a 52–44 lead at the end of the third quarter. USC rallied back by scoring the first seven points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer by Marshall to get them to 52–51 before a layup by Bessoir snapped a Bruins’ scoring drought of nearly seven minutes.

The Trojans had a chance to tie on their next possession when Marshall was fouled by Bessoir on a 3-point attempt, but the sophomore made only one free throw. The Bruins then scored the next three points to get some breathing room when Rice made a free throw and Bressoir got a basket after Rice missed her second foul shot.

USC had a chance to send it to overtime when Littleton got a rebound off Camryn Brown’s missed layup with 11.8 seconds left. After a timeout, the Trojans tried to get a 3-pointer in the corner but UCLA’s Gina Conti got a steal with 2 seconds left to preserve the win.

The game was tied at 22 midway through the second quarter before UCLA went on a 12-2 run that included five points each from Bessoir and Rice. The Bruins largest lead was 39–28 at halftime.

Big Picture

USC: The Trojans are ninth in the nation in field goal percentage defense (32.7%), but were outrebounded by 11.

UCLA: The Bruins were held to a season low 59 points, but found a way to get a key win on the road.

Up Next

UCLA: Hosts CSU Bakersfield on Saturday.

USC: Faces Texas on Sunday in Dallas.