USC Can’t Stop Stanford, 88-62

The last time the Pacific 10 Conference race was in doubt was in December, when Oregon upset Stanford and gave the other nine teams a glimmer of hope.

But Stanford hasn’t lost since. And by defeating USC, 88-62, Friday night in front of 1,084 in the Sports Arena, the third ranked Cardinal, 23-2 overall and 14-1 in the Pac-10, won its 13th consecutive conference game to clinch the regular-season conference championship.

It was the fifth consecutive championship for Stanford and secured the top seeding for the conference tournament, which begins March 4.

“I’d say this title is special for our seniors,” Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We play in a tough conference, and we’re very proud to be regular-season champions. Now we just want to get better and win the Pac-10 tournament, and go on to the NCAA [tournament].”

USC (16-9, 10-6), which lost its third in a row, was alone in second place last month. But Friday’s loss dropped the Trojans into a four-way tie for second with Arizona, Oregon and UCLA.

After the game Trojan Coach Mark Trakh talked about a team that’s losing its edge.

“We need to win the next two games to have a chance to go as an at-large team to the NCAA tournament,” he said.

“We haven’t shot the ball well all year, but we made it up through rebounding and defense.... But that’s disappeared in the last couple of weeks. We haven’t defended the way we did early. And we’re definitely not going to win if we get outrebounded the way we were tonight [46-33] and we allow Stanford to shoot 65% in the second half.”

The Trojans kept it close in the first half -- trailing only 30-25 with four minutes left, but the Cardinal led at halftime, 39-29, then scored the first 10 points of the second half to take control.

The Trojans got a scare in the second half when starting center Kim Gipson injured her right knee while going for a loose ball. She was helped off the court but later returned to the game.

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Mike Terry

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UCLA 73, California 61 -- The Bruins (16-9, 10-6) outscored the Golden Bears, 20-3, during the last six minutes at Pauley Pavilion. Nikki Blue scored 14 of her 25 points during the run. After Cal (9-15, 3-12) moved to within four at 65-61, Blue increased the lead to 68-61 with 1:43 left. She made the first of two free throws, but missed the second. But she got the rebound scored on a layup.

No. 12 DePaul 82, St. Louis 64 -- Khara Smith scored 25 points at St. Louis to lead the Blue Demons (22-3, 11-1 Conference USA) past the Billikens (3-22, 2-10).