Oregon’s women’s basketball team showed plenty of fight but couldn’t overcome a pair of prolonged scoring runs by USC Thursday night in Los Angeles.
After going on a 16-5 run late in the first half to take a 13-point halftime lead, the Trojans (10-6, 5-1 Pac-12) used a 21-5 spurt late in the second to defeat Oregon 92-73.
In between those two stretches, Oregon (10-9, 2-5) played fairly well.  The Ducks started the game on a 12-4 run and hung with the Trojans for most of the first half. After USC got hot at the end of the first half to claim a 13-point halftime lead, the Ducks whittled away at the deficit and actually took a 60-59 advantage midway through the second half before the Trojans clamped down during the second part of the second half, ending any hopes of a Duck upset.
Freshman Liz Brenner led Oregon with a career-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting, Jasmin Holliday scored 14, and freshman Jordan Loera notched 13.
Guard Briana Gilbreath scored 18 points for USC, Cassie Harberts tallied 17, and Christina Marinacci added a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Marinacci’s effort led a dominating performance by the Trojans on the glass — USC outrebounded Oregon 58-39 as the Ducks’ rebounding woes continued.
The Trojans shot 40 percent from the field to Oregon’s 37 percent and limited the Ducks to 23 percent shooting from three-point range.
Oregon will return to action at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday when they visit UCLA.