LOS ANGELES — Taylor Lilley began the evening mouthing lyrics to pre-game hip-hop.
By evening’s end, she was crying adjacent to the court, the weight of another difficult loss and a painful leg injury weighing on the junior shooting guard.
Oregon coach Bev Smith comforted Lilley, but there was little solace when the Ducks again kept it close against USC inside the Galen Center, only to fall 66-56.
The Galen Center is quickly becoming a house of horrors for Oregon, who lost 79-71 in the arena’s first year in 2006 and 46-42 last season.
“The thing that the Galen Center brings to me is we’ve always really been very competitive,” Smith said. “It feels like we’re banging our head against the concrete walls that are in here, but (an Oregon win) will happen.”
Oregon, already setback by injuries to Rita Kollo, Ellie Manou and Lilley this season, went without center Nicole Canepa who sprained an ankle in Thursday’s practice.
The Ducks (3-7, 0-1 Pac-10) had a chance to steal the win at the end. Point guard Micaela Cocks, who scored a game-high 18 points, buried a wide-open three-pointer with 3:24 left for a 56-55 Oregon lead. But of more significance, it was the Ducks final points of the evening.
“When we walked in tonight, No. 1 we were competitive,” Smith said. “That’s the first step. You have to be competitive. You have to give yourself a chance. USC threw a lot of things at us.”
USC (6-5, 1-0) reeled off an 11-0 game clinching run over the last 3:06. Starting guard Hailey Dunham, who sat for six minutes midway through the second half with four fouls, returned with six minutes left and hit the go-ahead free throw jumper for a 57-56 USC edge.
Cocks, Johnson and Lilley made consecutive turnovers that prevented an Oregon rally and translated into a 61-56 Trojan lead with 1:24 left off a fast break layup by Camille LeNoir and a Dunham jumper.
USC center Nadia Parker scored 17 points inside on a tidy 8 of 11 shooting.
With little scoring production inside outside of forward Amanda Johnson (16 points), Oregon fired away from long distance in the waning moments, instead of taking advantage of driving lanes to the hoop. The Ducks were only 8 of 24 from deep for the evening led by Cocks’ four three-pointers.
“I think we settled too much for outside shots,” Smith said. “I think we tried to win it with the big eight-point play and unfortunately we (don’t get those). We just need to get to the rim. We were in bonus.”
The freshman Johnson appeared undaunted by the setting and along with her 16 points on 7 of 16 shooting, grabbed eight rebounds — four on the offensive end. The Santa Rosa, Calif. native had family who made the drive down south.
“I pretty much go out and do my role, focusing on defense, focusing on rebounds and not really worrying about how many points I’m going to score or things of that nature,” Johnson said. “But (instead) focusing on things within my control and going as hard as I can.”
The Ducks kicked off the evening on a 7-0 sprint and caught USC off guard.
“It was definitely a good start,” said Oregon forward Jasmin Holliday, a Chino Hills, Calif. native, who received noticeable cheers during pre-game introductions. “We’ve had so many losses. We really wanted to get a win and especially me in front of all my family and friends.”
USC began mixing in a three-quarters court trap and turned Oregon turnovers into points. Oregon had 23 turnovers — 13 coming in the first half.
Oregon also had to deal with USC’s sharp shooting guard Brynn Cameron, who has noticeably improved this season from last year when she was coming off a pregnancy and a hip operation.
Cameron put USC on the scoreboard with a three-pointer to make it 7-3. After Oregon increased their lead to 17-7 on a Manou layup and Micaela Cocks free throw, USC went on a 10-0 run featuring five points from Ashley Corral and long-distance jumper by Cameron to even it at 17.
Cameron completed the night with 13 points, including three three-pointers and four rebounds. Her performance came in front of Los Angeles Sparks coach Michael Cooper, who was in attendance scouting, as well as Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter.