Women of Troy stumble on the road
The women’s basketball team completed a disappointing road trip on Saturday night, falling 84-74 to Arizona despite a double-double from junior guard Briana Gilbreath.
Versatile · In addition to posting a double-double, Briana Gilbreath, pictured here against Arizona State, had five blocks and four assists. - Kelvin Kuo | Daily Trojan
The defeat followed a 69-55 loss to Arizona State on Thursday, and dropped the Women of Troy (16-11, 8-8) into a tie for fourth place in the Pac-10 with Arizona (17-10, 8-8). Both teams sit a game behind Arizona State (17-9, 9-7) in the conference standings.
Gilbreath was one of four USC players to score in double figures, posting a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds. But the Wildcats outrebounded USC 31-18 in the second half as they pulled away late.
The game was a stark difference from the two teams’ matchup earlier in the season, when the Women of Troy took an early lead and claimed an 81-72 home victory.
“[The difference] was pure effort,” Gilbreath said. “Nothing else was different, no different play calls, no different defensive schemes … they wanted the game more than we did at the end of the day.”
The Wildcats took control of the game early, and held a 15-point deficit over USC with 4:44 remaining in the first half.
Led by Gilbreath, the Women of Troy staged a bit of a comeback in the last few minutes. USC’s leading scorer joined sophomore teammate Christina Marinacci in double figures, scoring the last shot of the half to make the halftime score 40-34 in favor of Arizona.
But the Wildcats came out of the locker room and dominated most of the second half, at one point leading 72-52.
“In the second half we didn’t come out strong, and they blew it out,” Gilbreath said. “We didn’t show up to play today, and when we did finally show up, it was too late.”
Once again, USC got its act together as the end of the half approached. The Women of Troy got their first back-to-back buckets of the second half when freshman Cassie Harberts scored and senior Jacki Gemelos followed suit after a defensive stop.
After a 7-0 run by the Women of Troy, junior Ashley Corral drained her 200th career three-pointer, extending her USC record, to cut Arizona’s lead to 74-67 with 1:30 to go.
But numerous fouls ended up hurting USC, as Corral and Gemelos fouled out as time ran out its comeback bid. The Wildcats wrapped up the game from the free-throw line, as they shot 29-of-38 from the charity stripe. Arizona’s leading scorer, Davellyn White, scored 15 of her 19 points from the free-throw line.
The team’s disappointment about the loss could be heard in Gilbreath’s voice, as she lamented the team’s lost chance to put itself in strong position for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
“This was our shot to push our way into the NCAA tournament,” Gilbreath said. “I think we still have a chance, but these were two big teams that we let slip out of our hands, and it was all on us.”
The Women of Troy return home for their final two regular season games, playing Washington State (8-20, 6-10) at 7 p.m. on Thursday and hosting Washington (11-14, 6-10) on Senior Day in a televised game on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.