UCLA Gets All Fouled Up Against USC

Thanks to poor free-throw shooting by UCLA, the USC women ended their two-game losing streak with a 61-56 victory Saturday at the Sports Arena.

The Bruins made the same number of field goals (24) as USC, but they made only seven of 21 free throws to lose their fifth in a row.

The Trojans, seeking redemption from their 65-53 loss at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 14, were slightly deeper and therefore slightly more fresh in the stretch, when UCLA failed to make a field goal for about 3 1/2 minutes near the end of the game.

That’s when USC turned a 52-50 lead into 58-52 before the Bruins’ Kristee Porter scored on a drive with 28 seconds to play.

The Trojans’ victory, before 2,136, made them 9-11 overall and 4-6 in the Pacific 10 Conference. UCLA is 3-18 and 2-8.

USC Coach Chris Gobrecht seemed happy for a change, after watching her young, up-and-down team recover from a 10-0 UCLA run midway through the second half.

“Last year I thought Oregon State was the hardest-working team in the conference,” she said. “This year, I believe it’s UCLA.

“If that’s the last-place team in the Pac-10, I think it says a lot about our conference. No lead is safe against UCLA, you are never out of the woods. They play like they have nothing to lose.”

The Bruins, who got 26 points from top scorer Michelle Greco, fell behind but never quit.

USC had a 34-26 lead at halftime, but Greco and Porter shortly closed the gap to 34-32. The Trojans seemed about to ice the game when they built a 47-36 lead with 12:30 to play, but Greco and Porter spurred the 10-0 run to cut the Bruins’ deficit to one.

At that point, the Trojans’ Carmen Krause helped turn the momentum when she scored on an inbounds play and made a free throw to give USC a 50-46 lead with 7:28 left.

The Bruins came within two points over the next four minutes, but by then the game’s pace began to take a toll. Coach Kathy Olivier played six players double-digit minutes, Gobrecht eight.

“It was huge that after that 10-0 run of theirs, they didn’t get the lead,” Gobrecht said.

“We got a strong game out of Denise Woods [13 points, five rebounds, five blocks], which you’d expect for a player playing her last game against the Bruins.”

UCLA, the league leader in steals, had 15 Saturday and USC had 26 turnovers. But the Bruins’ 14 missed free throws were too much to overcome.

Porter, recently named Volleyball magazine’s player of the year, seems to have found her basketball legs. With 18:20 remaining, she made a spectacular, leaping block of a Tashara Carter layup, then did it again, to Ebony Hoffman, with 2:57 left.

Hoffman, in foul trouble early, scored only four points in 18 minutes.