Reserves Help USC Beat Nebraska : Women’s basketball: Trojans recover from big run and foul trouble for Easterly and Leslie to win, 78-60.

The USC women’s basketball team recovered from an 18-2 first-half run by Nebraska and overwhelmed the Cornhuskers, 78-60, Sunday afternoon before 1,020 at the Sports Arena in an NCAA second-round playoff game.

The Trojans (22-6) advance to the NCAA round of 16 against Texas Tech (27-3) Thursday night at Missoula, Mont., in the West Regional tournament. Stanford (26-5) meets Colorado (26-3) in the second game Thursday at Missoula.

Nebraska’s 18-2 run followed a 6-0 USC lead and included a time during which USC stars Lisa Leslie and Joni Easterly were sent to the bench with foul trouble.

USC finally regained the lead seconds before halftime, 31-29, then put together a 24-11 run that buried Nebraska.

Coach Marianne Stanley used her reserves in this one. Leslie played three quarters of the game, and her all-Pac 10 teammate, Easterly, played 16 minutes. Both fouled out.

Junior Jualeah Woods scored 16 points and had 12 rebounds. Junior reserve Tracy Atwater made three of four three-pointers and finished with 13 points.

Nebraska’s Karen Jennings, a 6-foot-2 senior who was the Big Eight Conference player of the year for two consecutive seasons, was held to 16 points and 13 rebounds by Woods and Leslie.

USC made 16 of 19 free throws, and Nebraska was 15 of 28. The Cornhuskers had 10 consecutive misses to open the second half.

USC point guard Nicky McCrimmon was seven for seven from the line.

The Trojans, described by their coach as basically a defense-oriented team, were all of that Sunday, even during their first-half doldrums when they were kicking the ball all over the court on offense.

Nebraska didn’t reach double-digits until 12:45 remained in the first half but was ahead at the time, 10-8. Nebraska stretched it out to 20-8 before McCrimmon, freshman Jody Anton and Woods reeled in the Cornhuskers.

McCrimmon and Woods combined for 10 points in a three-minute spurt, and Tracy Adams and Atwater threw in three-pointers in USC’s charge to the halftime lead.

USC put it away with a rousing, 20-0 blitz in the middle of the second half. In the run, which powered USC from a 41-37 deficit, Atwater had two three-pointers and Leslie scored six points.

Nebraska Coach Angela Beck suggested USC players should “brighten up” comments on future opponents. USC’s Easterly had described Nebraska as the equivalent of a “middle-level Pac-10 team.”

Stanley said the fact her reserves bailed out USC should have come as no surprise. “We started out with quick foul trouble, but we showed we can go to our bench with confidence,” she said.

Said Atwater, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in January and missed 10 games: “Even when we had the big lead, we decided to keep playing hard--no mercy.”

Stanley: “This is a deep team. It goes well beyond Leslie and Easterly. When we have games like this, it’s simply a question of who is going to step up and get it done.”

USC’s assignment Thursday is Texas Tech and its All-American, Sheryl Swoopes, who scored 53 points at Texas this season. Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer, who scouted USC Saturday, said she doesn’t envy Stanley. “We beat Texas Tech by eight points, but Swoopes was 11 for 11 in the second half and finished with 36 points,” she said. “She shoots threes and she can really jump around the basket.”