One Last Shot Against Stanford

When players from Oregon and Washington State walk onto McArthur Court tonight, they will shoot Pacific 10 Conference women’s basketball into a new era.

Those teams will get the Pac-10’s first women’s postseason tournament underway. Their first-round game will be followed by UCLA against California.

But the real battles aren’t expected until Saturday, when the quarterfinal games are played. With the exception of Stanford, the remaining teams are fighting for their NCAA or National Invitation Tournament lives.

“It will be the most intense conference tournament and one of the most unpredictable,” USC Coach Chris Gobrecht said.

“There is no easy way out; you have to play someone who can beat you. And everyone except Stanford has to do something to get into the NCAA.”

Stanford--the regular-season conference champion and second-ranked team in the country--is an NCAA lock no matter what happens.

But the 27-1 Cardinal, which is riding a 20-game winning streak and has outscored the other Pac-10 teams by 19.7 points a game, aren’t lacking motivation.

“I feel we have to win the tournament to get a No. 1 [NCAA] seed,” Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer said.

Washington (17-10) and Arizona State (21-8), seeded second and third, are the next good bets to get NCAA bids.

“Are we an NCAA team? I don’t know,” Arizona State Coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We need to come back [from last week’s loss to Arizona]. In my mind, we have to win on Saturday.”

USC (15-12), Oregon State (15-13) and Arizona (14-13) probably need to win the tournament and its automatic bid to make the NCAA field.

But if they can fight into Monday’s championship game, or have a strong semifinal showing on Sunday, those teams could appear on the NIT’s short list.

Oregon (15-12) did not necessarily want to play a first-round game. But, as the host school, their appearance today could boost interest and attendance. In turn, the hometown fans could provide an emotional wave that carries the Ducks through the weekend and to a postseason bid.

Stanford sophomore guard Nicole Powell was selected as the conference player of the year. USC’s Ebony Hoffman and Aisha Hollans were named to the all-conference team. The Trojans’ Rachel Woodward was named to the freshman team.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

PACIFIC 10 CONFERENCE WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT

At University of Oregon

Today’s First Round

* No. 7 Oregon (15-12) vs. No. 10 Washington St. (2-26), 6:30 p.m.

* No. 8 UCLA (8-19) vs. No. 9 California (7-20), 8:45 p.m.

Saturday’s Second Round

* No. 2 Washington (17-10) vs. Oregon-Washington St. winner, noon

* No. 3 Arizona St. (21-8) vs. No. 6 Arizona (14-13), 2:15 p.m.

* No. 1 Stanford (28-1) vs. UCLA-California winner, 6 p.m.

* No. 4 USC (15-12) vs. No. 5 Oregon St. (15-13), 8:15 p.m.

Sunday’s Semifinals

* Games at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Monday’s Championship Game

* 7 p.m. (FSN).