USC Ends Drought by Beating Stanford : Woman’s basketball: Trojans had lost eight in a row against Cardinal before 67-55 victory. Leslie scores 27 points.

USC’s women’s basketball team ended an eight-game losing streak against Stanford with a rousing, Lisa Leslie-led 67-55 victory at Lyon Center on Monday night.

The 14th-ranked Trojans, 5-0 in the Pacific 10, led the defending national champions, 3-1, from the 7:20 mark of the first half. Stanford, ranked No. 3, got no closer than nine points in the second half.

Leslie, a 6-foot-5 junior, dominated both of Stanford’s big players, All-American Val Whiting (6-3) and Anita Kaplan (6-5). Leslie scored 27 points on 10 of 14 shots from the floor and seven of eight from the free-throw line. She had 14 rebounds.

“Yes, I’d have to say that’s the best game I’ve ever played, considering the competition,” she said.

And as she said it, USC Coach Marianne Stanley hugged her and said: “That’s the first time Lisa has done everything I’ve asked her to do in a basketball game.”

Leslie has, at times, played spectacularly, but has also lacked intensity in her first two seasons. Monday, she played hard at both ends of the court for the entire game.

She was everywhere, diving for loose balls and intimidating Whiting and Kaplan under the defensive board. Leslie twice forced Stanford turnovers on in-bounds passes.

She was supported in no small measure by Joni Easterly, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and point guard Nicky McCrimmon, who had six assists.

But this was a team victory, especially defensively. The Trojans (11-2) harassed Stanford (12-3) from baseline to baseline. Stanford’s 55 points was the Cardinal’s lowest total in 160 games, or since early in the 1987-88 season.

Stanford, which had lost only twice this season--both times to Tennessee--made a valiant comeback drive in the closing minutes, but Leslie, McCrimmon and Easterly made big plays in the home stretch.

Molly Goodenbour, MVP at the women’s Final Four last spring, was only four for 11 from the floor Monday, but made several acrobatic steals in the last 10 minutes to keep Stanford within shouting distance.

Leslie, who blocked Whiting’s first shot, gave the Trojans the lead for good with 7:20 to play in the first half with a jump shot from the top of the key.

USC led, 30-20, after Juleah Woods executed a spectacular block of a Bobbie Kelsey shot and freshman Jody Anton made a three-point shot at the other end.

Early in the second half, Easterly got the crowd of 1,145 into the game when she scored underneath to give USC a 41-26 advantage.

USC seemed to be in command with 8:44 to go when Easterly put a Leslie miss into the basket for a 51-39 lead.

Stanley called it a team victory, and the Stanford coach, Tara VanDerveer, said her team played poorly.

“I was disappointed with all our rushed shots, all the turnovers (19, to USC’s 18),” VanDerveer said. “We just didn’t have a good team effort.”