USC Ends Season on a Sour Note

USC’s women’s basketball team expects to be sent somewhere in the NCAA tournament this afternoon, but it’ll be a short stay if the Trojans play the way they did Saturday in a dismal regular-season finale.

Two days after perhaps its best game of the year--Thursday’s 101-59 victory over Washington State--Fred Williams’ team played probably its worst, losing, 71-66, to Washington before 983 at USC.

The Trojans (13-5, 19-8) finished in third place in the Pacific 10 Conference. Washington (13-6, 17-10) finished fourth after winning its last four.

The Trojans’ Tina Thompson, making a bid to wrap up the league scoring title over Stanford’s Kate Starbird, scored 32 points and had 13 rebounds. Guard Erica Jackson scored 13 points, but Thompson had little other help.

Washington’s Laure Savasta was probably the difference in the game.

She had 24 points, four steals and made two of her four three-point shots in the first minute of the second half to increase the Huskies’ lead to 42-37 while USC players stood around, trying to figure out Washington’s matchup-zone defense.