USC Loses to Washington in Gobrecht’s Seattle Return

USC’s first-year women’s coach Chris Gobrecht felt as if she was in a no-win situation Saturday.

Gobrecht, who led Washington to nine NCAA tournament appearances from 1985-96 and is the school’s winningest women’s coach, returned to Seattle for the first game against her former team.

Washington, ranked No. 18 in the nation, defeated USC, 67-60, in the Pacific 10 Conference game. Gena Pelz scored six points during a game-ending 9-2 game-ending run for Washington, 13-5 overall and 4-5 in conference games.

“It was hard not to feel like I was going to come out a winner either way,” Gobrecht said. “There were people on both sides of the ball I care about. I think my dream was for everyone to play well.”

Seven players on the Washington roster were recruited by Gobrecht, including the conference’s leading rebounder, Amber Hall, and the conference’s second-leading scorer, Jamie Redd.

Neither player was particularly effective. Hall had 12 rebounds but missed 14 of 17 shots while Redd had only nine points.

“I love her a lot,” said Hall of Gobrecht. “It was weird to be face-to-face with her out on the court.”

Kristin Clark had 18 points for USC (8-10, 3-6).

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Maylana Martin had 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead UCLA from a 12-point halftime deficit to a 76-70 victory over Washington State in a Pac--10 game at Pullman, Wash.

UCLA (11-6, 6-2) had three other double-figure scorers--Marie Philman (14 points), Erica Gomez (14) and Aisha Veasley (11).

Alke Dietel scored 23 points to lead Washington State (9-8, 3-5).

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Kristin Folkl scored 20 points as No. 9 Stanford (12-5) beat No. 5 Texas Tech (14-4), 80-71, at Lubbock, Texas. Stanford has won 10 of 11 games since Folkl joined the team after playing on the school’s national championship volleyball team.