Women of Troy fall in second round of Pac-10 tournament

With its chances to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament on the line, the USC women’s basketball team fell 72-61 to Arizona in the second round of the Pac-10 tournament at Galen Center on Thursday.

Before the game, the Women of Troy (19-12, 10-8) were considered to be close to the cut line of making the NCAA tournament, and following the loss, USC coach Michael Cooper wasn’t enthusiastic about his team’s chances.

“Being a part of the 64 [teams to get a bid] means you have to be a very disciplined, tough team,” Cooper said. “I would love [for the team to get a bid], but I think there are other teams out there that a little bit more deserving [than us]… But if we get in, we’ll take it and be glad to have it.”

Cooper points to the WNIT, the second tier postseason tournament, as a likely destination for the Women of Troy.

“I don’t think our season is finished, there are opportunities for other tournaments going, like the WNIT,” Cooper said. “Hopefully that’ll work out, but we’ll just wait and see.”

The Wildcats used a dominating 18-5 scoring run to begin the second half that put the game out of reach for the Women of Troy.

“[Arizona] was able to execute their offense,” Cooper said. “We got outran, and they took it to us. I like the fact that we played hard and stayed with it, but they were the better team this evening.”

USC’s offense struggled to start off the second half, making only one of their first eight field goal attempts.

“We played hard, but sometimes it just seemed like there was a lid on the basket,” Cooper said.

Arizona took advantage, making seven of their first eight shots from the field on the way to a 47-33 lead, the largest scoring deficit of the game at that point. Sophomore guard Davellyn White led the charge for the Wildcats, making her five out of her first six shots, including four from three-point range.

“They’re a good three-point shooting team,” said junior guard Jacki Gemelos. “When [White] got hot, we needed to run around the three-point line, and I don’t think we did a great job of that.”

Arizona maintained its timely shooting streak throughout the second half, as USC’s defense seemed helpless in their attempt to stop the run.

Arizona made six out of their first seven shots from three-point range in the second half, and ended up converting 53.8 percent of their shots from beyond the arc.

The Women of Troy managed to cut the lead down to 10 points on a trey from freshman guard Len’Nique Brown, but Arizona responded with an 11-2 run to grab their biggest lead of the game, 61-42.

But the Women of Troy refused to go down without a fight.

Led by Gemelos, USC proceeded to go on an 11-0 streak that cut the deficit back to single digits, as they trailed 61-53 with 4:34 remaining in the game. Gemelos scored seven of the team’s 11 points during the run.

Unfortunately for the Women of Troy, they couldn’t cut the deficit below eight points for the rest of the game. The Wildcats advanced to the semifinals of the tournament, and will play the Stanford Cardinal Friday at noon.

Meanwhile, USC’s fate is out of their hands.