Sisters Krystal and Charlisse Leger-Walker almost pulled off a second dramatic victory in a week for their US college basketball team on Monday (US time).
The New Zealanders’ Washington State Cougars side lost 68-66 to UCLA – but not before the siblings had combined in miraculous fashion to push the game into overtime.
Washington State trailed 48-44 with five minutes to play but the Leger-Walker sisters scored all of their team’s points in the closing stages of the final quarter, with a lay-up from younger sibling Charlisse putting the Cougars up 50-49 with 1:21 to play.
UCLA bounced back however and looked certain winners when leading 53-50 with just two seconds left – but Charlisse Leger-Walker was fouled after a time-out, made the first free-throw and deliberately missed the second free-throw and Krystal swooped to grab the rebound and score just before the buzzer to take the game into overtime.
In overtime, Krystal sunk a three-pointer and Charlisse made two jump shots to give their side a 62-61 lead before Charisma Osborne took over to secure the win for UCLA.
Last week, Charlisse made a lay-up at the buzzer in overtime to give Washington State an upset win over Arizona.
It was the third consecutive overtime game for the Cougars, who went into the encounter ranked No.25 in the national standings, while UCLA were ranked eighth.
Washington State trailed 42-26 with less than five minutes to play in the third quarter and despite the defeat are still exceeding pre-season expectations – sitting fifth in the 12-team Pac-12 conference with a 5-3 win-loss record.
In her freshman year, Charlisse Leger-Walker has rapidly made a big impression – being named Conference Freshman of the Week four times.
The highly-regarded statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight, in a piece examining the top freshmen players in this season’s NCAA women’s basketball competition, had Leger-Walker rated fourth.
