Elmore’s 20 Points Lead USC’s Rout of Nevada

Tiffany Elmore was sitting under the basket with a slightly dazed look before USC’s game Saturday against Nevada. When asked if she was OK, Elmore said yes, adding, “I just got hit in the head with the ball.”

Hopefully it won’t become a ritual. Then again it might wake up Elmore’s game. The senior guard-forward had her best outing of the season, scoring 20 points as the Trojans ran past the Wolf Pack, 86-48, before 657 at the Sports Arena.

In sharing high-point honors with teammate Aisha Hollans, Elmore made nine of 12 shots, had four rebounds (all offensive) and spearheaded a Trojan defense that blocked seven shots and held Nevada to 33.3% shooting (19 of 57).

“I know I’m not going to score 20 every night,” said Elmore, who was four points shy of her career high. “But doing other things like rebounding and defense--that’s what I can bring to the team. Today was [the kind of game] I want to play and need to play for us.”

The victory sent the Trojans (4-5) into next week’s Pacific 10 Conference opener against Oregon State on a high note. But USC, which scored the game’s first 12 points, stormed to a 48-21 halftime lead and shot a season-high 51.5% from the field (35 of 68), continues to tantalize more than convince it can a serious conference contender.

“I’m not sure anybody in the middle of December feels ready for Pac-10, although we’re all in the same boat,” USC Coach Chris Gobrecht said.

“We know about ourselves because of what we’ve been through [in nonconference play]. We know our strengths and weaknesses, what we have to improve. But I don’t know yet if we have improved to the point where I’d say we’re ready to go like blazes in the Pac-10. We still turn the ball over too much and we’re not shooting as well as we should from the perimeter.

Katie Golomb had 13 for Nevada, which fell to 3-5.