With its win over Oregon on Saturday, Southern California can officially be recognized as a contender in the Pacific-10 Conference.
The Trojans (11-8 overall, 8-3 Pac-10) trail Arizona (16-5, 8-2) by a half-game for second place in the conference, with road games against Washington and Washington State this week.
USC is the only Pac-10 team to defeat No. 7 Stanford (17-3, 10-1), dropping the Cardinal 59-56 on Jan. 25. Two of the Trojans’ conference losses, surprisingly enough, have come at the hands of Oregon State (11-9, 5-6).
Senior forward Ebony Hoffman has been USC’s best player on both sides of the ball. The 6-foot-2 All-American candidate has been a force inside, averaging 15.3 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.
Hoffman was key to USC’s 71-56 win over Oregon (11-10, 3-8) on Saturday, scoring 12 points on 5 of 8 shooting in the second half. She provided the Trojans with a spark off the bench after being suspended in the first half for a violation of team policy.
It was only the fifth time in 106 games that Hoffman was not in the starting lineup.
“I am not above team rules and I should be disciplined as well,” Hoffman told the Daily Trojan after the game. “It’s a point well-proven and it won’t happen again.”
Senior guard Rometra Craig has also been big, averaging 11.5 points per game.
USC showed its potential early in the season, giving then-No. 1 Connecticut all it could handle in a 72-69 USC loss on Dec. 7. The Trojans had a chance to send the game into overtime, but Rachel Woodward’s three-point shot at the buzzer hit the rim and bounced away.

Blazing Sun Devil
Arizona State junior Kylan Loney scored a career-high 32 points Saturday, helping the Sun Devils defeat Arizona 68-60 at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.
The 5-foot-7 guard connected on 5 of 8 three-pointers to pull Arizona State within a game of second place in the Pac-10.
While Loney’s offensive outburst was the key to the Sun Devils’ win, the defensive-minded guard said she would rather shut down her opponent than produce a scoring outburst.
“My best games are when I hold my player to two or zero points, and she’s confused and ticked off,” Loney told the Arizona State Press. “It’s nice to hit shots, but I like to see my opposing player totally out of her zone.”
Loney’s performance earned her Pac-10 Player of the Week honors and pushed Arizona State (13-6, 7-3) 2 1/2 games ahead of Washington, Oregon State and UCLA.
Loney’s previous career high was 21 against Oregon on Jan. 4, 2003.

Moving up
Stanford moved up one spot to No. 7 in this week’s Associated Press poll after demolishing the Washington schools last week.
The Cardinal defeated the Huskies (85-59) and the Cougars (91-67) a week after falling to USC and squeaking past UCLA in overtime.
It appears Stanford was awakened by its loss to USC, which could spell doom for the rest of the Pac-10. The Cardinal face the Arizona schools this week with a chance to take control of the conference race.
Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said the Cardinal need to be more aggressive if it is going to be successful down the stretch.
“I actually pulled people who weren’t taking their shot,” VanDerveer told The Stanford Daily after defeating Washington State. “I saw four or five people who had wide open three-pointers and they didn’t take them … we had 31 attempts and I thought we could have shot 10 more.”
Stanford has easily been the best team in the conference. Eight of its 10 conference wins have come by at least 10 points and six have come by at least 20.
All-American forward Nicole Powell has played like her usual brilliant self, averaging 21.1 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.
If Stanford can stay away from serious injury, it could make a run at a national title.