USC Women Step Up in Pac-10

It has been a long time since the USC women have played what Coach Chris Gobrecht would describe as “meaningful basketball” late in the Pacific 10 Conference season. After all, the Trojans’ last conference championship was in 1993-94.

On Sunday, the Trojans got such an opportunity against No. 24-ranked Arizona. And USC didn’t waste the moment, outlasting the Wildcats, 68-66, in front of 1,262 at the Sports Arena.

The victory enabled the Trojans (14-9, 11-4) to vault past the Wildcats (18-7, 10-4) into second place in the conference. USC, which trails first-place Stanford by half a game, matches up Thursday against the No. 11-ranked Cardinal at Palo Alto.

Guard Jessica Cheeks led USC with 15 points, and all of them seemed to come at critical junctures. Her most important field goal was a three-pointer with 57 seconds to play, with the shot clock running out and the Wildcats riding an 8-0 run that had reduced the Trojans’ lead to 61-60.

“It just happened to go in,” said Cheeks, who had a perfect shooting day, making all five of her shots and all three of her free throws. “I was hearing the countdown ‘8,7,6,’ and I just shot it, hoping it would go in. And it went in.”

Arizona, which had 20 points from Dee-Dee Wheeler and 18 from Natalie Jones, outshot USC, 56% to 39.3%, and outrebounded the Trojans, 36-28. But the Wildcats also were guilty of making 28 turnovers, taking some questionable shots in the final four minutes and fouling excessively.

None was as punitive to Arizona as the fifth foul on center Shawntinice Polk, who barreled into USC’s Rachel Woodward with 9:06 to play in the second half and was called for charging. Polk had 14 points and 10 rebounds but only one field goal in the second half, and her presence was sorely missed by Arizona down the stretch.

Sunday’s victory was the kind that should get USC consideration for a NCAA tournament berth, but much depends on how the Trojans finish the regular season. They have three Pac-10 games and one nonconference game against UC Santa Barbara remaining before they begin play in the conference tournament in 2 1/2 weeks.

Fortunately, from Gobrecht’s viewpoint, the Trojans can’t -- and won’t -- think that far ahead. Playing for first place on Thursday will be enough.

“Where we are now is having [the season] mean something,” Gobrecht said.