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The Women Of Troy Defeat The Arizona Wildcats 74-57

Elisa Ting |
January 27, 2013 | 5:43 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

USC's Cassie Harberts scored 26 points en route to a dominant victory. (Kevin Tsukii/Neon Tommy)
USC's Cassie Harberts scored 26 points en route to a dominant victory. (Kevin Tsukii/Neon Tommy)

The Southern California women's basketball team (8-11, 5-3) snapped a three-game losing streak by defeating the Arizona Wildcats (11-8, 3-5) 74-57 at the Galen Center on Sunday afternoon. 

Junior forward Cassie Harberts led all scorers with 26 points, and sophomore guard Kiki Alofaituli posted a career-high of 11 points. Sophomore guard Ariya Crook contributed seven assists and five steals. 

In the first half, USC shot 50 percent from the field goal with Harberts leading with 15 points at the break.

“[Harberts] is an amazing player,” said Alofaituli. “She’s always [playing] consistently well and she worked really hard today.”

Additionally, Crook finished the first half with four assists and two steals, both of which shifted the momentum away from the Wildcats at crucial times in the game. For the first half, Alofaituli scored seven points on 75 percent-shooting.

The Women of Troy had the superior flow from the start, as evidenced by the smooth swinging of the ball around the perimeter. This spread thin the Arizona defense. From strategic passes to well-executed screens, USC’s defense forced Arizona to pass out of bounds or to unoccupied areas of the court, leading to ample turnovers. The Women of Troy scored 27 points off 20 Wildcats turnovers.

USC also had the upper hand on the defensive glass, as the Trojans finished the first half with 14 defensive rebounds compared to the Wildcats’ nine. Though Arizona grabbed more offensive rebounds than USC did, the Women of Troy’s chemistry and fast-paced offense led them to put up almost double the number of Arizona’s points by halftime (43-22). Defensively, the Women of Troy held the Wildcats to 7-30 shooting (23.3 percent) in the first half. In addition, USC shot 50 percent from the field in the opening half.

The Women of Troy entered the second half certainly mindful of their loss against Arizona State last week after allowing 40 points in the second half.

“It was definitely better energy offensively and defensively [compared to the Arizona State game],” said Alofaituli. “We picked each other up really well.”

USC took home the victory by building off the established rhythm from the first half. Because of the significant lead, the Trojans played confidently and dominated the second half with six fast breaks and 14 points in the paint. Arizona never led in the entire game.

After today’s career-high performance, Alofaituli hopes to maintain the energy for USC’s next game, which will be against Utah at the Galen Center on Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. PDT.

“Just keep the energy up, keep up the focus, and fight on,” said Alofaituli.

Reach Staff Reporter Elisa Ting here or follow her here.

Kevin Tsukii provided these photos from Galen Center.



 

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