GAMEDAY Womens Basketball
UCLA 59, Southern Cal 56
By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES - Emily Bessoir scored 16 points and No. 10 UCLA survived a late rally to beat Southern California 59-56 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.
December 16, 2022
| UCLA | ||||||||||||
| Player | Pos | Min | FG-FGA | FT-FTA | 3P-3PA | OR-TR | Ast | Blk | Stl | TO | PF | Pts |
| E. Bessoir | F | 26 | 7-13 | 0-0 | 2-5 | 4-7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 16 |
| C. Osborne | G | 37 | 6-24 | 1-2 | 1-9 | 5-13 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 14 |
| K. Rice | G | 35 | 6-18 | 2-3 | 0-4 | 1-3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 14 |
| G. Conti | G | 24 | 0-4 | 4-4 | 0-3 | 1-2 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| C. Brown | G | 19 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| L. Sontag | 16 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2-4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | |
| C. Iwuala | 15 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | |
| L. Jones | 13 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| G. Jaquez | 12 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1-3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| B. Masikewich | 2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Totals | 199 | 24-73 (.329) |
8-11 (.727) |
3-23 (.130) |
20-47 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 19 | 59 | |
| USC | ||||||||||||
| Player | Pos | Min | FG-FGA | FT-FTA | 3P-3PA | OR-TR | Ast | Blk | Stl | TO | PF | Pts |
| K. Sissoko | F | 40 | 8-15 | 4-7 | 0-1 | 3-8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 20 |
| R. Marshall | F | 35 | 5-11 | 4-8 | 1-1 | 1-10 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 15 |
| O. Adika | F | 9 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| D. Littleton | G | 36 | 2-10 | 4-4 | 2-5 | 0-4 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| K. Williams | G | 32 | 1-8 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| T. Bigby | 27 | 3-7 | 0-0 | 3-6 | 1-2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | |
| A. Miura | 12 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| C. Akunwafo | 5 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| K. Love | 3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| R. Doumbia | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Totals | 199 | 19-55 (.345) |
12-20 (.600) |
6-16 (.375) |
9-36 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 16 | 56 | |
Officials: Chuck Gonzalez, Tiffany Bird, Teresa Turner
Attendance: 3,109
