USC Turns It Up Again to Upset Washington

Guess what has happened to the once-woeful USC women’s basketball team?

Suddenly, the Trojans might be playing the best ball in the Pacific 10 Conference.

After beating Stanford and California last weekend for their first Bay Area sweep since 1986, the Trojans shocked a Thursday night Sports Arena crowd of 693 with an 88-76 upset victory over Pac-10 leader Washington.

In winning their third straight after losing four in a row, the Trojans manhandled the Huskies on the boards; dominated inside (56 points in the paint to Washington’s 30) and halted a three-game Washington winning streak. The Huskies, 19-8 overall and 12-5 in the conference, had hoped to clinch at least a tie for the Pac-10 championship.

USC (12-15, 7-10) played at a level not even approached for most of the season.

Playing with that newfound toughness, which allowed them to bring their athleticism into play for really the first time all season, the Trojans started fast.

USC had 13-4, 19-6 and 33-15 leads before Washington cut the Trojans’ lead to 40-37 at halftime.

The Huskies caught USC at 44-44 but never led. At that point, Tashara Carter, Ebony Hoffman and Denise Woods led an 11-4 surge. It was followed by another Washington comeback but Chris Gobrecht’s team beat down that one too.

USC’s lead shrunk to 64-60 and 66-62 before that same trio--plus freshman point Jessica Cheeks--powered USC to safe ground. It was a Cheeks steal and breakaway at 3:10 that seemed to clinch it, at 75-67.

Hoffman (17 points, seven rebounds, six assists) agreed her team has suddenly, albeit too late, learned how to win.

“Coach G [Gobrecht] challenged us this week,” she said.

“She said it had all come to what we wanted to do. Did we want to fold it up, just finish the season?

“We told her no. It took us all this time to learn how to play hard together.

Carter had a game-high 24 points.