Stanford Routs USC to Stay Atop Pac-10

Ebony Hoffman had waited all of her USC career for this shot, the chance to move into first place near the end of the Pacific 10 Conference season.

But she and the rest of the Trojans were reminded by No. 10 Stanford on Thursday that the Cardinal is in no hurry to vacate the top spot.

A 75-57 Stanford victory, before 3,836 at Maples Pavilion, kept the Cardinal (19-5, 12-3) in first Thursday. The loss sent USC (14-10, 11-5) back to third place in the conference. Arizona moved back into second by beating Oregon State.

“We know we need to put this game behind us and not take it into the Cal game [on Saturday],” Hoffman said. “Now we have to play for Cal. They played them tough here. And we didn’t do that.”

The Cardinal got 18 points and 10 rebounds from Nicole Powell, the leading candidate for Pac-10 player of the year. But other Stanford players were even more lethal to the Trojans. Azella Perryman, who averages 6.9 points, made eight of nine shots and had 17. Kelley Suminski, with 16, nearly doubled her 8.6 scoring average.

That easily negated the 15 points by the Trojans’ Meghan Gnekow, and 13 points by Hoffman, 11 of them in the second half.

Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer said Thursday’s performance, in which the Cardinal shot 23 of 46 and outrebounded USC, 35-32, was the kind of effort her team needs to put forth in the waning weeks of the season.

“We’re not head and shoulders over everyone else in the Pac-10,” VanDerveer said. “USC has an excellent team, and they give you a lot of problems. I thought our team came out tonight and did most of the things we needed to do. I thought Azella had a great game, maybe her best game since she’s been at Stanford.”

Thursday’s task would have been challenging even if the Trojans played a perfect game. USC had lost 15 of its last 16 games here, dating to the 1986-87 season. But Maples has been a Death Valley of sorts for Pac-10 teams. USC, on March 1, 2001, was the last visiting conference team to win here. Since then the Cardinal have rolled 26 straight Pac-10 opponents on its home floor.

Now make it 27.

“We just didn’t play the game real smart,” USC Coach Chris Gobrecht said. “And we didn’t decide to attack them offensively until the second half.”

The Trojans didn’t help themselves by letting Stanford bolt to an 8-0 lead in the first three minutes. Even though USC scored the next seven points, that was as close the Trojans got to a lead because their shooting was lukewarm (21 of 59).

“The slow start killed us,” Gobrecht said. “It gave them a dose of confidence we couldn’t afford for them to have. They’re a much different team when their confidence is running high.”

UCLA 97, California 69 -- Freshman Noelle Quinn had 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, and Lisa Willis scored a career-high 31 points for UCLA at Haas Pavilion.

Quinn’s triple-double was the first in the Pac-10 this season. It was also her sixth straight game with 20 or more points for UCLA (15-10, 10-6). Renee Wright scored 11 points for Cal (9-15, 2-13), which has lost 11 straight.