USC Women Go to Press, Run Off a 99-53 Victory

It’s not difficult to figure out what the USC women’s basketball team is going to do in a game. You look at their films for 10 minutes and it’s like watching “Run For Your Life.”

What’s not so easy is to devise a way to stop the fifth-ranked Trojans from scorching the varnish off the floor with their fast break, as they did Thursday night while routing Indiana, 99-53, before 1,046 fans at the Sports Arena.

The Trojans (5-0) once again blasted their way through another opponent in the soft early part of their schedule. It was a full-court press--all night long. A full-court press with a 46-point lead. Maybe the new highlight film will be called, “Meet the Press.”

“We knew they would use a full-court press. We knew they would look to break when they could,” said Indiana Coach Jorja Hoehn, whose team is 2-2. “We knew a good deal about them. I’m not going to second-guess a coach. It’s my policy that if we have a substantial lead, we are not going to continue to press. Not all coaches have the same philosophy. I don’t know what they are working on.”

What the Trojans are working on, according to Coach Linda Sharp, is working. That is, USC needs to maintain its intensity on defense and keep the pressure on offense throughout the entire game. In Sharp’s philosophy, that means keeping starters in late in the game and with huge leads.

“We are going to play our game,” Sharp said. “I’ve had coaches say they’d rather not see us press the entire game. I just have to laugh. That’s our style.

“I thought we’d have to play hard in this game. I thought our offensive execution, the quarter-court, was good.”

USC’s offense was cranking out points, but the Trojans often ran wild to get them.

“They were really running,” Hoosier center Karna Abram said. “Sometimes they seemed to be out of control.”

USC ran away, literally, with the first half. The Hoosiers began well, but when fatigue set in, they lost a step or two.

It was then that the super-quick Trojans padded their lead. USC was up by only 19-16 when it ran off 10 straight points. It was 3 1/2 minutes of fast breaks later that Indiana finally caught its breath. But it was too late to breathe life into a tired starting five.

Cynthia Cooper was the spark for the Trojans, scoring 21 points and playing a creative, aggressive game. Cheryl Miller, who is averaging 29 points a game, had 25 points and 12 rebounds.

Cindy Bumgarner led the Hoosiers with 12 points, while Abram had 10.