Trojans Defeated by Oregon State

After winning five of their last six games, the USC Trojans must have been due for an off night. And, after losing four of its last five, Oregon State must have been due for some success.

That’s the way Oregon State’s 73-66 victory over USC unfolded Thursday night in front of 589 at the Sports Arena.

The loss got the Trojans, 10-8 overall and 7-4 in the Pac-10, off to a bad start in the second half of the Pacific 10 Conference race.

The Trojans had only three players score more than six points: Ebony Hoffman had 19; Rometra Craig had 12; and Meghan Gnekow 10. Gnekow also had nine rebounds.

Oregon State (11-8, 5-5), which got 19 points from guard Leilani Estavan, ended a three-game losing streak and swept the Trojans in the regular season for the first time since 1999-2000. The Beavers (53.4%) outshot USC (40%), outrebounded USC (32-30), had a 19-11 edge in assists and never trailed after a layup by Shannon Howell put them ahead, 30-29, with 3 minutes 29 seconds left in the first half.

“From the start of the game we were executing our offense,” Oregon State Coach Judy Spoelstra said. “We have been trying to find ourselves [during the losing streak]; I think we have talent, but sometimes that talent doesn’t know when to go and not to go.”

As for the Trojans, let’s just say Coach Chris Gobrecht wasn’t too enthusiastic about USC’s play.

“We did not play very hard -- bottom line,” Gobrecht said. “We just thought we were going to walk all over them. Don’t tell me how we suddenly thought we had become all-world overnight. We didn’t play hard or show any respect for them. We deserved to get beat.”

Mike Terry

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Oregon 61, UCLA 55 -- Andrea Bills had a double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds) in front of 1,084 in Pauley Pavilion.

Oregon (11-9, 3-7) led by as many as 13 points in the first half and held a 29-18 advantage at the half. UCLA (9-10, 4-6) came back at the start of the second half and scored the first seven points to close to within four, 29-25, at the 17:44 mark.

However, Oregon regained control by scoring eight unanswered points of its own to go back up, 37-25.

Lisa Willis led UCLA with 20 points, 18 coming in the second half.

Freshman Noelle Quinn had her second career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.