UC Santa Barbara Too Much for USC, 77-53

Kayte Christensen led a balanced scoring attack with 14 points Tuesday night as 22nd-ranked UC Santa Barbara defeated USC, 77-53, before a crowd of 2,071 at Santa Barbara.

Erin Buescher added 10 points and eight rebounds for UCSB (7-3), and Kristi Rohr and Nicole Greathouse had 10 points each.

Danielle Golay led USC (5-3) with 17 points.

No. 3 Louisiana Tech 94, No. 11 Purdue 62--Tamicha Jackson scored 26 points, freshman reserve Catrina Frierson added 19 and the Lady Techsters (7-1) forced 25 turnovers in routing the Boilermakers (8-2) at Ruston, La.

“It was by far our best home performance of the year. We’ve gone in spurts at home, but tonight we had a total performance,” Louisiana Tech Coach Leon Barmore said.

The victory ended the Lady Techsters’ two-game losing streak against Purdue, which ousted Louisiana Tech in last season’s NCAA tournament.

No. 4 North Carolina State 70, New Hampshire 44--Summer Erb scored 14 first-half points to help the Wolfpack (10-0) rout the Wildcats (4-5) at Raleigh, N.C.

No. 9 Penn State 79, Pittsburgh 56--Helen Darling scored 15 points and Andrea Garner had a career-high 14 rebounds as the Nittany Lions (8-2) rolled over the Panthers (6-3) at State College, Pa.

No. 23 Kansas 71, No. 14 Arizona 68--Lynn Pride had 19 points and her layup with 27.6 seconds remaining finished off a rally that lifted the Jayhawks (7-2) over the Wildcats (9-1) at Lawrence, Kan.

No. 17 Duke 66, Liberty 45--Peppi Browne had 11 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Blue Devils (10-1) over the Lady Flames (5-5) in the championship game of the Sun Splash Shootout at Nassau, Bahamas.

No. 18 Illinois 88, Cal State Northridge 69--Tauja Catchings scored 28 points to lead the Illini (9-3) over the Matadors (5-3) at Champaign, Ill.

No. 24 Tulane 81, Nicholls State 51--Britt Themann scored 18 points to help the Green Wave (8-0) rout the Lady Colonels (0-8) at Houma, La.

No. 25 Texas 76, Arizona State 63--Edwina Brown scored 28 points to lead the Longhorns (8-3) over the Sun Devils (7-2) at Austin, Texas.