Upside Is Gone for USC

Forty-eight hours after knocking off Pacific 10 Conference leader Arizona, USC’s women’s basketball team registered another stinker Saturday night and lost to Arizona State, 66-59, at the Lyon Center.

After her team’s season-best game Thursday, Coach Chris Gobrecht could only throw up her hands in frustration as the Sun Devils (12-6 overall, 4-2 Pac-10) converted 24 Trojan turnovers into 30 points.

This, despite a season-best effort by freshman center Ebony Hoffman, who had a game-high 19 points and who seemed at least briefly ready to personally lead a comeback in the second half.

She did, but after her perimeter teammates quit finding her with passes, the USC (6-9, 1-4) rally faded quickly.

Hoffman, who has had season-long problems breaking loose from blocks and double-teams down low, was suddenly available when Arizona State hiked its 32-24 halftime lead to 41-29 five minutes into the second half.

Then Hoffman scored a 10-foot jumper, got two short ones inside and added a putback after Jessica Cheeks stole a pass.

Then the 6-foot-1 Hoffman made an acrobatic block at the other end and turned it into a transition basket by Norwood that reduced Arizona State’s lead to 49-44.

After that, the Trojans couldn’t do anything right. They made only two field goals over the next five minutes. They tried torrents of errant three-point shots, sinking only three of 15 from beyond the arc in the second half.

Gobrecht was upset afterward, in part because the game was played before a standing-room-only crowd of 1,410.

“We lost the game in the first 10 minutes [when Arizona State jumped to an 18-8 lead], when it was clear to me we hadn’t come out prepared to play,” Gobrecht said.

“These are mostly freshmen, and they don’t respect the quality of the teams in the conference. Then they dig a big hole for themselves and can’t get out. Ebony had her best game for us, but the rest of my players had better start growing up fast.”