SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Charisma Osborne scored 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting, Kiki Rice added 14 points and eight rebounds and No. 15 UCLA overcame a cold-shooting start to beat UC Santa Barbara 68-57 Saturday night.
Gabriela Jaquez made 5 of 7 from the field and scored 12 points for UCLA (8-1), which rebounded from a 73-54 loss at No. 1 South Carolina on Tuesday that snapped the Bruins’ seven-game win streak.
Gina Conti made a jumper, Osborne hit a 3 just before the buzzer and Rice added a jumper to open the fourth quarter to make it 50-44 with 9 minutes to play and UCLA led the rest of the way.
Alyssa Marin led the Gauchos (5-2) with 17 points — 14 in the first half — and Ila Lane scored 13. Jessica Grant added 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting, all from behind the arc.
The Bruins, who made just 2 of 16 from the field in the first quarter, shot 69.2% (9 of 13) in the second as they outscored UCSB 21-13, including eight points by Osborne, to trim its deficit to 33-25 at halftime. UCLA then hit its first six field-goal attempts in the third quarter to power a 14-3 run that made it 39-36 — the Bruins’ first lead since 2-0 — when Emily Bessoir hit a 3-pointer with 6:53 left in the period.
Rice hit a jumper to open the scoring about 90 seconds into the game but the Bruins missed 10 consecutive field-goal attempts over the next eight-plus minutes. Marin hit three 3-pointers and scored 11 points — and Ila Lane added seven points — in a 20-2 run to close the first quarter that gave UCSB a 16-point lead.
The Bruins shot 63.4% (26 of 41) from the field after the first quarter and scored 16 second-chance points off 17 offensive rebounds.
UCLA, which went into the game leading the Pac-12 and No. 10 in the nation with 127 made free throws this season, hit just 6 of 11 from the foul line against UCSB.
UC Santa Barbara hits the road to take on Cal Baptist next Saturday
UCLA returns home to play Cal State Fullerton next Saturday before opening Pac-12 play at Southern California on Dec. 15