Tears welled in the corners of Michaela Onyenwere’s eyes from her seat on the sideline.
This wasn’t the ending the UCLA All-American envisioned.
The senior’s storied UCLA career ended Wednesday with a 71-62 loss to No. 6 seed Texas in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Onyenwere had 23 points and five rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to will the third-seeded Bruins (17-6) to their fifth straight regional semifinal. Instead, the Longhorns (20-9) will advance to face No. 2 seed Maryland.
Onyenwere, UCLA’s first-ever two-time All-American, moved into fourth place on UCLA’s all-time scoring list with 1,890 career points, but watched the final seconds of her collegiate career tick by from the bench after fouling out with 3:23 remaining in the fourth quarter with the Bruins down by 12.
Texas, which forced 17.5 turnovers per game entering Wednesday’s matchup, flustered the Bruins into eight first-half turnovers. It outnumbered their made shots of six.
The Longhorns shot 50% from the field in the first half and took a 21-point lead into halftime, even though likely No. 1 overall pick Charli Collier was held to five points on two shots.
UCLA attacked the basket to chip away at the lead in the third quarter. The Bruins didn’t attempt their first free throw until the final two minutes of the second quarter and had just two free throw shots in the first half. They had 15 in the third quarter alone as they chopped the deficit to 10 entering the fourth quarter.
Collier got into foul trouble, sitting most of the second half and finished with just five points and five rebounds.
With Collier out, the Bruins climbed to within nine points after a free throw from Onyenwere with 4:41 to go.
Texas then answered with a three-pointer on the next possession. The Longhorns made six-of-17 shots from three-point range. The Bruins missed 14 straight three-pointers to open the game and finished one-of-19 beyond the arc. The one make was from Charisma Osborne, who scored 17 of her 19 points in the second half after picking up three fouls in the first.
