LOS ANGELES (AP) — 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.
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
