Texas Tech Swoopes Past USC : Women’s basketball: Forward has 33 points and 11 rebounds to lead Red Raiders to an 87-67 victory, ending Trojans’ season.

Sheryl Swoopes scored 33 points to lead Texas Tech to an 87-67 women’s basketball victory over USC on Thursday night in the semifinals of the NCAA West Regional.

Before a crowd of 6,228 in the 8,500-seat Dahlberg Arena at the University of Montana, No. 5-ranked Texas Tech opened a 40-22 halftime lead, turned back two rallies in the second half and ended USC’s season by denying USC (22-7) the inside shots they had gotten all season.

Statistically, USC was the Pacific 10 Conference’s leading defensive team this season. But the Red Raiders (28-3) utilized a scrambling zone defense that denied USC good shots at close, medium and long range.

Further, the much shorter Texas Tech team had only two fewer rebounds than USC.

“We exploited their zone the way we wanted to just a couple of times, but it seemed like every time down, we just weren’t getting the kind of shots we needed,” USC Coach Marianne Stanley said.

“But the big thing was we’d miss the first shot and they’d rebound.”

Another factor became clear as the game went on. The Trojans fouled a very good free-throw shooting team much too often. Swoopes was nine of 10 from the line and Texas Tech was 30 of 39. USC was 17 of 29.

Swoopes was brilliant. Twice she went end to end uncontested for easy layups. She made 11 of 22 shots, two of four from three-point range. The 6-foot senior forward, on her 22nd birthday, also had had 11 rebounds.

Swoopes came into the game averaging 37 points over her last three games. Against Texas earlier this month, she had 53.

Against USC, she seemed capable of creating a good shot every time she had the ball. And nearly always, she did--despite the efforts of defenders Jualeah Woods and Joni Easterly.

Swoopes’ 5-10 running mate, Krista Kirkland, had 26 points--including three three-pointers.

USC, runner-up to Stanford in the Pac-10 race, was never in the game. The Trojans’ only lead was 2-0. The Trojans were as close as 48-40 with 13 minutes to play, but 6-5 junior Lisa Leslie picked up her fourth foul at about the same time.

With Leslie out, Texas Tech quickly built a 65-44 lead with 7:45 to play. Leslie, who scored 15 points in 31 minutes, fouled out during the final minute.

The Trojans cut the margin to 73-64 with 2:55 left but made only two shots the rest of the way.

USC shot 27% during the first half and finished at 33%, making four of 27 three-point shots.

Texas Tech shot 48%.