UCLA Women's Basketball: Cori Close Singles Out "Warrior" In First Loss Of Season

The Bruins almost rallied in the second half...

A scoreless opening half from UCLA Bruins guard Charisma Osborne saw the Blue and Gold fall to the ascendant USC Trojans by 15 points, 34-19, at the halftime mark of yesterday's rivalry game between two of the Pac-12's best women's basketball programs this year. 

We're not saying Osborne's ineffective offense is wholly at fault for a miserable start, but it sure didn't help, either.

The fifth-year senior strived to rally the troops almost all on her own in the game's second half, scoring a team-high 25 points and helping shrink her team's deficit to four points in the contest's closing three minutes. All told, the team ultimately could not come all the way back, as it just couldn't contain USC's scorers on the other end. 

Despite her club coming up short, Osborne still impressed her head coach Cori Close, per Thuc Nhi Nguyen of The Los Angeles Times.

“This one here is such a warrior,” Close said. “There’s all kinds of people that say whatever they want, but if you know basketball and you really watch our team, [she’s the] heart and soul.”

As Nguyen notes, an Osborne UCLA team hadn't dropped a game to USC since 2020. The upset loss sinks the Bruins to a still-great 14-1 record on the 2023-24 season.