Area women’s basketball: WSU, UW lose in L.A.

Temi Fagbenle scored a season-high 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead Southern California to a 64-62 victory over Washington State on Sunday night in Los Angeles to snap a two-game skid.

Fagbenle added five assists to go with her ninth double-double of the season. Courtney Jaco chipped in 18 points for the Trojans (18-8, 6-8 Pac-12).

Dawnyelle Awa scored 16 points to lead Washington State (12-13, 3-11), which has lost eight straight.

The Cougars had their last lead, 56-55, with four minutes left. Jaco made a 3-pointer, sparking 7-0 spurt and the Trojans led 62-56. Mariah Cooks and Borislava Hristova made consecutive layups to pull the Cougars to 62-60 with 28 seconds left.

Washington State had two chances to tie it after Awa forced a turnover on the Trojans’ ensuing possession, but Hristova missed a layup, and Louise Brown missed a pair of free throws.

Jaco added two free throws with 19 seconds left to make it 64-60.

“I thought our front line rose to the occasion,” WSU coach June Daugherty said. “They played very well, especially in the second half. Rebounding was a big focus for us as a team, and it’s great to see us outrebounding (37-30) someone. You look at the stats – the shooting (52 percent from the floor) and the rebounding, but we shot 3 of 11 from the free-throw line. And obviously the 27 turnovers aren’t good. It was very uncharacteristic of us. We have to handle the pressure a lot better than what we did this weekend.”

(14) UCLA 63, Washington 59: Jordin Canada scored 16 points, including the game-clinching free throws with 2.3 seconds left, and added seven rebounds, nine assists and six steals as the Bruins edged the Huskies in Los Angeles.

Canada’s jumper gave the Bruins a 61-57 lead with 2:01 left and Kelsey Plum’s free throws pulled the Huskies within two at 1:07. Both teams missed on their next two possessions, the last for Washington coming when Plum drove through the lane and her left-handed layup attempt came up short with 3.5 seconds remaining.

Monique Billings had 13 points and 13 rebounds for UCLA (19-6, 11-3), which has won three straight and eight of nine, and Nirra Fields had 13 points.

Plum finished with 32, giving her 2,135 career points for the Huskies (17-8, 8-6) and Talia Walton added 19. Chantel Osahor had 16 rebounds and four points.

Plum hit 7 of 10 shots in the first quarter as Washington took a 26-13 lead but was 4 of 17 after that. UCLA cut the deficit to 36-35 at halftime.