Leslie Puts Trojans on Higher Level : USC women: Coaches inside and outside the program expect freshman to make big difference.

Everyone wanted her, but USC got her and suddenly, without playing a game, the Trojans have returned to national prominence. The team that went 8-19 last season is ranked as high as 19th in the preseason polls.

Responsible for that is Coach Marianne Stanley’s acquisition of Lisa Leslie. The player who scored 101 points in one half while starring for Inglewood’s Morningside High. The 6-foot-5 center could well have scored 200 points had the game not been called because opposing South Torrance High did not want to continue.

“She scored 100 points in a half? Well, I hope she’s not dunking on Maples (Pavilion) floor, not as a freshman at least,” Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer said. “I’m sorry we’re going to play her eight times while she’s at USC.”

Coach Joan Bonvicini of Cal State Long Beach almost signed Leslie. “We might have been ranked preseason No. 1 if we did,” Bonvicini said.

But Leslie chose USC. And the Trojans, according to Stanley, have therefore “taken a big step forward.”

No kidding.

“She’s one of the best athletes I’ve seen and potentially could be the best player ever,” Bonvicini said of Leslie.

UCLA Coach Billie Moore: “You don’t work trying to stop someone like that. We might have to tackle her at half-court or something like that.”

In her first game as a Trojan last Saturday against the West German National Team, Leslie scored 25 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked four shots, before fouling out with seven minutes to play. The Trojans won, 86-80.

“She’s the only girl I’ve seen that’s so tall, but uses her height well,” point guard Tammy Story said. “She’s like a guard out there, but a taller one.”

Seven players return for USC, three of whom will start. One recruit, Linda Watson, a 6-foot guard who averaged 20 points and seven assists at Lynwood High, will miss the season because she has yet to score the mandatory 700 points on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Her letter of intent is not valid and she theoretically could decide to go elsewhere.

Story, the team leader in assists last season with 92, will run the offense alongside guard Joni Easterly, who averaged 11 points and 5.4 rebounds a game last season. Freshman Jualeah Woods, a 6-footer from Berkeley who Stanley calls “flat out the quickest player I’ve ever coached,” will start at one forward position. Kim Gessig and Molly Keenan (formerly Wampler; she recently took her stepfather’s name), will alternate at the other forward spot, Gessig getting the nod early because Keenan continues to be bothered by a sore ankle.

Leslie will play center, and get as much playing time as possible.

“She elevates everybody else’s game,” Stanley said. “This will be a very balanced scoring attack, but I think it’s nice to know, in the clutch when you need someone to really take over, you’ve got someone who has that ability.”