Oregon junior guard Chelsea Wagner tied her career-high of 21 points.
The Oregon women’s basketball team suffered its first Pacific-10
Conference loss of the 2004-05 season on Sunday.
The Ducks were never able to overcome their seven-point halftime deficit and eventually fell 77-72 to Southern California in front of 1,357 fans at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles.
The loss dropped Oregon to 9-3 overall and 2-1 in the Pac-10, while USC improved to 7-4 and 1-1.
The Ducks were plagued by sloppy play in their first game since upsetting No. 5 Stanford 62-58 Wednesday at McArthur Court. Oregon committed 20 turnovers in the game against the Women of Troy, 13 of them coming in the first half.
Against the Cardinal, Oregon committed only eight.
“I think that we were flat,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith told 1320 The Score’s Ray Martin. “We turned the ball over too much, and that put us on our heels. We just didn’t have the energy defensively.”
Junior guard Chelsea Wagner tied a career-high in points with 21 in the losing effort, connecting on 5 of 11 three-pointers from beyond the arc.
Oregon dominated the game inside, scoring 42 points inside the paint, but a lackluster defensive effort erased any advantage the Ducks were given.
Senior Andrea Bills, who received Pac-10 Player of the Week honors last week, added 19 points on 9 of 15 shooting. Bills also grabbed seven boards and handed out two assists.
For the game, the Ducks outrebounded the Women of Troy 44-28, including an 18-8 advantage on the offensive glass.
Senior Cathrine Kraayeveld had 18 rebounds for the Ducks, nearly outrebounding the entire USC team.
However, the Ducks’ 13 first-half turnovers gave the Women of Troy a number of easy opportunities and allowed them to erase a six-point Oregon lead en route to a 19-6 run by USC to close out the half.
For the game, the Trojans scored 24 points off Duck turnovers.
Senior point guard Corrie Mizusawa led the Ducks in assists with eight, but also led the Ducks in turnovers with five.
Early in the second half, the Ducks closed to within 41-40 behind a Kaela Chapdelaine three-pointer, but were answered a bit later by the Women of Troy after they scored five straight to push the lead back to 49-42.
For the game, USC shot 50 percent from the floor and 50 percent from the three-point line.
“I think the big thing is that we allowed 77 points,” Smith told Martin. “We didn’t get out to their shooters and if we don’t play defense, we are going to have a hard time winning.”
The 77 points scored by the Women of Troy was the highest point total by a Duck opponent this year.
USC received balanced scoring from the entire team. Sophomore point guard Jamie Hagiya led with 14 points and also contributed five assists. Freshman guard Camille LeNoir added 10 points off the bench.
Oregon continued to struggle from the free-throw line, shooting 8 of 16, including 5 of 12 in the second half.
Freshman Gabrielle Richards added another solid performance for the Ducks off the bench. In 18 minutes of play, Richards scored eight points and collected six rebounds.
