The Michigan State women’s basketball team fell just short of one of their best victories in program history.
The upset bid for the No. 22-ranked Spartans was turned away Sunday night as top-ranked UCLA used a late rally to record a 75-69 victory in a Big Ten contest at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.
UCLA, which played without star and Big Ten player of the year candidate Lauren Betts, scored the final seven points while denying MSU in its quest to get just its second victory over a top-ranked team in program history and first since beating Stanford in the 2005 NCAA tournament.
MSU (19-6, 9-5) didn’t score after Theryn Hallock hit a pair of free throws with 2:14 to play that gave the Spartans a 69-68 lead.
Timea Gardner hit the go-ahead 3 with 44.8 seconds to play to give UCLA (24-1, 12-1) the lead for good in what was a back-and-forth final quarter. Kiki Rice went 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the final 20 seconds — two coming after the Spartans were hit with a technical — to help the Bruins close out the win.
MSU took its biggest lead of the night at four after a jumper by Julia Ayrault gave it a 67-63 advantage with 4:21 to play. The Spartans didn’t make a field goal the rest of the way.
Hallock had a game-high 19 points to lead the Spartans in the opening game of their Los Angeles road trip. Ayrault had 18 points, which included scoring seven during a third quarter where MSU outscored the Bruins, 22-12. Grace VanSlooten was also in double figures for MSU and had 16 points and seven rebounds.
Janiah Barker and Gardiner each had 18 points to lead UCLA, which bounced back from Thursday’s loss to USC.
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State women’s basketball edged by No. 1 UCLA
