W. hoops takes aim at Trojans
By Hye Kwon
Having lost its last seven meetings against USC, the UCLA women's basketball team will try to put an end to their losing streak as they take on the Women of Troy at the Sports Arena tonight.
The game, which will tip off at 7:30 p.m., will matchup two teams that have taken different paths after starting off the season in a similar fashion. Going back to the second week of conference play, the two teams had an identical 1-3 Pac-10 mark. The two teams were tied for last place in conference as a result.
While the Bruins (10-14 overall, 5-10 in Pac-10) have continued to struggle since, the Women of Troy have slowly but steadily climbed back into contention. USC now has a record of 16-7 overall and 9-6 in conference, fourth best in Pac-10. They have also climbed the national polls and are comfortably sitting at No. 24. A couple of weeks from now, they will likely be invited to the NCAA women's tournament.
The Women of Troy are keyed by one of the best players in the conference in Tina Thompson. In an earlier meeting at Pauley Pavilion, Thompson scored the winning layup as the Women of Troy escaped Westwood with a 56-55 win. Thompson, who paced USC with 13 points and 12 rebounds, will clearly be the key to her team's success tonight.
"USC does a good job of penetrating the key and dishing off to Tina," UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. "But the key is the offensive glass. That's where Tina gets her points."
Thompson has a scoring average of 20.1 points per game, which is second only to Oregon State's Tanja Kostic. The sophomore also averages 10.4 rebounds per game which places her right behind UCLA's Kisa Hughes (10.6 per game) for the conference rebounding title.
Despite dropping her scoring average to 16.7 points per game (7th in Pac-10) in recent games, Hughes will be the key to UCLA's success. Hughes will be important not only because of her scoring, but because she will have to play defense against the physical USC frontcourt players.