USC avenged a home loss to Oregon earlier this season, slipping by the Ducks 87-84 Thursday evening at McArthur Court. Ashley Corral's 23 points led the way for the Women of Troy, followed by Briana Gilbreath's 20.
Playing before the home crowd for one last weekend series, Taylor Lilley's 22 points was tops for the Ducks with backcourt mate Micaela Cocks adding 16.
It was a close, hard fought game throughout with 14 lead changes and 11 ties. Neither team was able to build a lead of more than seven points. Oregon paced the way in the game's opening minutes opening their largest margin at 18-11.
After USC fought back to tie the game at 20, the teams knotted the score again at 25, 27, 28 and 32 before the visitors hit for three straight buckets to take their largest lead at 39-32 with 4:32 remaining in the opening half.
Lilley's hit a pair of buckets to get the Ducks back on track and Jasmin Holliday hit for a two and a three to close out the half with Oregon leading 47-46.
In the second half, USC bolted to another seven point lead in the opening six minutes and maintained an advantage until Micaela Cocks hit from behind the stripe to give the Ducks a short-lived lead 82-80 inside three minutes.
But USC hit three straight free throws to retake the lead 83-82.
With Oregon's next possession, Lilley had a 10-foot jumper to regain the lead, but her shot rattled the hoop several times before rimming out and on the rebound, the Ducks were forced to foul. In the game's final minute USC hit four of six from the line to keep Oregon at bay, sending the Ducks to their third straight loss and dropping their season record to 16-11 and 7-8 in the Pac-10.
"It's a hard game to capsulize," said head coach Paul Westhead. "We played well enough in some ways to win it and yet we didn't get it."
"We have been talking about the past few games, we just need to play a little better and we can be on the win side. You try and analyze after the game and you see a lot of good things we did and a lot of breakdowns. Good thing, breakdown - good thing, breakdown. I guess that's why it was a three point game."
"I saw parts of the game that even though they were scoring we stayed in our press because we felt they were faltering. And then, darned if two possessions later it looked like we were faltering."
As one would suspect would be the case, the stat sheet couldn't have been more balanced. Oregon hit 31-63 from the floor for a 49.2% shooting percentage; it took the Women of Troy two more attempts to make an equal number of baskets, a percentage of 47.7%. USC held a four rebound margin (34-30) and the Ducks turned the ball over twice more (16-14).
"I would say there a couple of moments," said Lilley of the difference in the game. "There was just some offensive rebounds that they got on their end and some put backs that probably hurt us . But then we came back and we scored as well so it was kind of a back and forth battle."
Oregon's final home stand of the season continues Saturday when seniors Lilley, Cocks and Lindsay Saffold will be recognized prior to the start of Saturday's UCLA game for their time in an Oregon uniform. Tip-off is set for 2:00. FoxSportsNW will televise what is scheduled to be the last women's Pac-10 conference game held in McArthur Court.
