Leslie Chooses USC Over CS Long Beach : Basketball: Morningside star led school to two consecutive Division I state titles, 125-9 record in four years.

Lisa Leslie of Morningside High in Inglewood, considered the nation’s best female high school basketball player, signed a national letter of intent with USC Monday.

The 6-foot-5 Leslie, who led the Monarchs to their second consecutive Division I state title in March and gained national fame by scoring 101 points in one half against South Torrance in February, had narrowed her choices to USC and Cal State Long Beach.

“It was really hard to decide, especially after my visit to Long Beach State,” said Leslie, who led the Monarchs to a 125-9 record in her four-year career. “Before, I knew that I wanted to go to USC but my visit to Long Beach really complicated things. The No. 1 reason why I decided on USC was academics.”

Leslie’s signing tops an outstanding recruiting year for USC, which was 8-19 last season under first-year Coach Marianne Stanley. Besides Leslie, guard Linda Watson of Lynwood, a two-time Parade All-American, and Jualeah Woods of Berkeley, Northern California player of the year, also signed.

USC is hoping this recruiting class will return its program to the glory it enjoyed when the Trojans dominated women’s basketball with such players as Cheryl Miller, Cynthia Cooper, Rhonda Windham and Pam and Paula McGee. The Trojans, who made 10 consecutive NCAA playoff appearances and won national titles in 1983 and 1984, are 20-35 in the past two seasons.

“I do not think that it will be a rebuilding year (for the Trojans) because they will have a lot of talented players next season,” Leslie said.

Leslie, who scored 750 on her second try at the Scholastic Aptitude Test, said her decision had not been affected by her initial failure to score the NCAA-mandated minimum of 700 on the SAT.

“It didn’t make much of a difference,” said Leslie, who has a 3.5 grade-point average. “The only difference would have been whether I would have had to sit out my freshman year or not.”

Leslie said she made her decision last Thursday but waited until Monday morning before disclosing it to anyone, even her mother, Christine.

“I wanted her to go USC all along,” Christine Leslie said Monday. “I really did not know which school she was going to choose until today. She told me that she wouldn’t tell me earlier because I might tell someone.

“I’m glad she decided on USC because I feel that it is the more prestigious school, compared to Long Beach. I was looking way far ahead in her future.”

In her senior season, Leslie averaged 27 points and 7.5 blocked shots and made 54% of her shots from the field. In Morningside’s 67-56 victory over Berkeley in this year’s state championship game, Leslie scored 35 points, had 12 rebounds and blocked seven shots.

The highlight of her season, however, might have been the afternoon she scored 101 points against South Torrance in an attempt to break Miller’s national record of 105. Leslie lost her chance when South Torrance refused to play the second half.

“It will be known in history that I scored 101 points in a half, and the team quit when they knew I would have broken the record,” Leslie said Feb. 8. “I like it this way better.”

Leslie will now prepare for the Southern Section 2-A Division track and field finals Friday at Gahr High, where she will compete in the high jump, triple jump and long jump.