USC Women Turn It Around on UCLA

Billie Moore, in her 12th season coaching the UCLA women’s basketball team, can always be counted on to deliver the brutal truth.

“I believe that this game probably set basketball back 10 years,” she said in summing up USC’s 90-75 victory over UCLA Friday night at Pauley Pavilion.

Indeed, UCLA played poorly and USC, while executing only slightly better, nevertheless blew away the Bruins.

The revenge motive seemed to work for the Trojans, who well-remembered the Bruins’ 76-62 victory at the Sports Arena last month. No one for USC wanted to see that happen again.

“I think everyone knew it,” Karon Howell, USC’s senior forward said.

The Bruins’ guards--young and skittish--were the focus of the Trojan attack.

“That was their game plan,” Moore said. “Attack our guards and see how they would handle it. They didn’t handle it.”

The Bruins committed 20 turnovers and were outrebounded, 49-38.

The Trojans led at the half, 48-33.

USC Coach Linda Sharp was pleased with her team’s defensive play, especially in contrast to the previous game against UCLA.

“It was a factor,” she said. “We have two seniors here, playing their last time at UCLA. They have been on their younger teammates all week.”

One of those seniors, Cherie Nelson, was particularly effective. Nelson led all scorers with 33 points and had 11 rebounds.

USC led by as many as 28 points. Although the Bruins made several small runs at the Trojans, they never brought the deficit into single digits.

“We really didn’t start playing our tempo until about 5 minutes to go,” Moore said. “That’s easy to do when you’re 24 points down. There’s no pressure.”

Althea Ford had 16 points for UCLA and DeDe Mosman had 14 points, including two 3-pointers.

USC is 8-12 overall and 4-6 in the Pacific 10 Conference. UCLA is 9-11 and 5-5.