It all happened so fast.
The Huskies’ Haley Van Dyke cut behind her defender, caught a well-timed pass from Trinity Oliver and scored a layup with four seconds left, giving Washington a 12-point lead and closing out a riveting first half against No. 9 UCLA at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Except, UCLA’s Charisma Osborne wouldn’t let the half end just yet.
Osborne caught the inbounds pass, took one dribble and just before the buzzer sounded launched a Hail Mary heave from just beyond halfcourt — and she swished it. Talk about a buzzkill.
Osborne’s shot cut UCLA’s halftime deficit to nine, silenced an energetic home crowd and gave the sleepy Bruins some life. Did it ever.
The shot was the first of 19 consecutive points for the Bruins, who opened the second half with seven straight baskets and held on for a 51-47 victory over UW in Pac-12 women’s basketball action Friday night.
The Huskies (10-7, 2-5 Pac-12) missed their first nine shots of the third quarter as UCLA (16-3, 5-2) turned a 27-15 deficit into a 34-27 lead.
A fastbreak layup from UCLA’s Kiki Rice gave the Bruins their largest lead, at 45-35, with 8:20 to go.
The Huskies crawled back in it late, using an 8-0 run behind a Jayda Noble reverse layup, two Dalayah Daniels buckets and two Hannah Stines free throws to get within 45-43 with 2:12 remaining.
Stines connected on two more free throws to cut UCLA’s lead to 47-45, but the Huskies wouldn’t get any closer.
UW shot just 29.5% overall (18 for 61), 23.3% in the second half (7 for 30) and 8.3% on three-point attempts (1 for 12).