USC Women’s Basketball Tournament : Lady Longhorns Win Title With an 89-69 Romp Over Trojans

The ‘Horns hooked another one, this time USC, 89-69, to win the USC women’s basketball tournament Saturday night at the Sports Arena and extend Texas’ winning streak to 36.

If this is as close as the No. 5 Trojans could get to No. 1, what does that say for the rest of the country?

The Trojans did have a nine-point lead midway through the first half but, with starting point guard Rhonda Windham out with a sprained left ankle, did not have the horses to keep up with Texas, a team lacking the depth of last season’s national championship squad but not the punch.

An 18-point first half by Clarissa Davis and a 20-point second half by Doreatha Conwell led the way for the Longhorns before a crowd of 2,512.

“It seemed if it wasn’t one thing, it was another,” USC Coach Linda Sharp said. “(Andrea) Lloyd (with five points in a key two-minute span) in the first half picked up the tempo. Then, in the second half, it was Conwell. . . . They’re just a very balanced offensive team, quick and very familiar with each other.”

Said Texas Coach Jody Conradt: “We played in spurts all night. We seemed to get hot there midway through the second half. Our shots began to fall, we got some steals and we started to overcome our inconsistency.

“I am very happy to win this tournament and win a game like this by 20 points. We basically won this game with five players, and I’m pleased our starters could play with that much intensity throughout.”

Conwell, the former L.A. Locke High School star who almost went to USC as a freshman and then again this year after two years at Odessa (Tex.) Junior College, led all scorers with 28 points, making 14 of 17 shots. Davis, the tournament MVP who had a big night against the Trojans last March in the NCAA title game, added 24 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out. Lloyd had 16 and Yulonda Wimbish 12.

If Texas (2-0) was working with five players, USC had four.

Only four Trojans scored, that is. Center Monica Lamb, after getting just 6 points in Friday’s semifinal win over Old Dominion, had 27; Karon Howell, celebrating her 20th birthday, had 17; and forwards Holly Ford and Cherie Nelson had 14 and 11, respectively.

Texas outscored USC (1-1) by a 17-6 margin in the last 5:09 of the first half and then by 10 points in the final 20 minutes.

This was after the Trojans had raced to a 22-13 lead over the nation’s top-ranked. Lamb had 10 points in that span.

Earlier, seventh-ranked Cal State Long Beach took third place with a 94-61 victory over 12th-ranked Old Dominion.

Star forward Cindy Brown, bothered by a strep throat, came off the bench to score a game-high 25 points for the 49ers, making 12 of 16 shots in 23 minutes, after getting only 11 points in 28 minutes of the 100-86 loss to Texas Friday night. Guard Penny Toler added 21 points, giving her 37 in the season’s first two games, and reserve Cheryl Dowell scored 14 points in 14 minutes.