Osborne’s 32 points lead UCLA women over Cal
By The Associated Press
Charisma Osborne had 32 points and the No. 7 UCLA women beat Cal 78-58 on Friday night for its 12th straight victory over the Bears.
UCLA (17-3, 6-3 Pac-12) rebounded after losing to unranked Washington State, with a marquee matchup at No. 4 Stanford looming today. The Bruins started the season 14-0, but had lost three of their last five.
After the game, Bruins coach Cori Close rattled off the different ways in which Osborne scored — in the post, off the dribble, beyond-the-arc. And she stated the obvious: “Bottom line: I have Charisma. They don’t.”
“I could tell really early on she was feeling in a rhythm, in a zone,” Close said. “And for me, it’s: ‘Let her go.’ We need to call plays that put her in situations, but I don’t need to overcoach at that point. I need to get her the ball in spots that I know she likes and let her make plays.”
Londynn Jones added 18, including six straight points in one possession after Cal had cut the lead to single digits midway through the fourth quarter. Jones hit a three with a foul away from the ball, and then made a layup plus the foul after UCLA retained possession. Angela Dugalic also had 12 points for UCLA.
Osborne’s elbow jumper off a screen by Lina Sontag with under two minutes to go in the half gave her 2,102 career points, passing Maylana Martin for third on UCLA’S scoring list. The graduate student recorded her 30th point with just over three minutes to play in the third quarter on another jumper, capping off seven straight points and putting the Bruins ahead 51-32.
Once Osborne saw her first shot go in, she felt more comfortable being aggressive to get to her spots.
“I was just really confident and once like the first couple one and I was like, ‘OK, I’ll keep going and keep doing that,” Osborne said.
UCLA was without leading scorer
Lauren Betts, who is averaging 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds this season, for the third straight game. Betts practiced during the week but was listed as questionable due to “undisclosed medical reasons.” scuffling Red Storm (13-9, 5-6), who have dropped five of six after opening 4-1 in conference play during their first season under Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino. Leading scorer Joel Soriano was held to six points on 2-of-6 shooting and four rebounds — well below his season averages.
NO. 9 MARQUETTE 91, GEORGETOWN 57 >>
Kam Jones scored a career-high 31 points, Tyler Kolek had 17 points and eight assists and the visiting Golden Eagles won their sixth straight game.
Marquette (17-5, 8-3 Big East) forced 19 turnovers and outscored the Hoyas 35-5 in points off turnovers.
Georgetown (8-13, 1-9), which lost its sixth straight game.
SAN DIEGO ST. 81, NO. 17 UTAH ST. 67 >>
Jaedon Ledee had 16 points and nine rebounds to lead the Aztecs to a home win against Great Osobor and the Aggies.
Ledee scored nine points in the second half of the showdown between the top two scorers and rebounders in the league. Osobor had 17 points and seven rebounds.
The Aztecs (17-5, 6-3 Mountain West) beat the Aggies (19-3, 7-2) for the fifth straight time. That streak includes a win in the conference tournament championship game, and the Aztecs went on to reach their first Final Four, where they lost to Uconn in the national championship game.
Jay Pal scored 16 for SDSU, which lost three of its previous five games.
Jahmyl Telfort matched his season high with 26 points and DJ Davis added 22 as the Bulldogs held off the Bluejays in a wild finish Friday night.
Davis, from Riverside Poly and Centennial high schools, was fouled in the final seconds with a one-point lead. But he was scratched around the eye and one of the nation’s leader in free-throw percentage was unable to shoot. Boden Kapke took his place and made both with 6.4 seconds left for a three-point lead and the Bulldogs (15-7, 6-5 Big East) won their fourth straight.
BUTLER 99, NO. 13 CREIGHTON 98 >>