SEATTLE — Eleven games into the 2010-11 season, the University of Washington women’s basketball team still doesn’t know how good — or bad — it might be.
Sunday afternoon saw the depleted Huskies (5-6 overall, 0-2 in the Pac-10) go toe-to-toe with another conference po
wer but come up short in the end. This time, USC had more gas in its tank — and players on its bench — in a 60-51 win over short-handed UW to extend the Huskies’ losing streak to three games.
“There’s no way to fully know how good we can be,” UW junior guard Kristi Kingma said. “… You’re never really able to know how talented or successful you can be until we have everybody on the court.”
Still, down its two most productive post players, UW scratched and clawed to stay within striking distance for most of Sunday’s game. The Huskies stayed within six points for 10 of the first 13½ minutes of the second half but USC never let them closer than two points.
UW played from behind for all of the game’s final 30 minutes, even though the Huskies were within single digits for all but 18 seconds of action.
“I’m definitely proud of how we’ve been resilient through adversity,” Kingma said after her hobbled Huskies dropped close games to UCLA and USC in a span of three days. “But teams go through injuries all the time, and there’s a million other things we could have done to get a win out there.”
UW hasn’t had its biggest inside threat, 6-foot-4 junior Regina Rogers, since the season opener because of hamstring problems. Starting post player Mollie Williams joined her in street clothes for each of the Huskies’ two Pac-10 games while recovering from a concussion.
Help arrived Sunday in the form of 6-0 sophomore Jeneva Anderson, who made her season debut after hip surgery, but the little-used forward showed signs of rust and limped off the floor midway through the second half following a collision under the basket.
The Huskies’ only two healthy inside players — junior Mackenzie Argens and freshman Marjorie Heard — provided scoring (22 total points) and muscle (14 total rebounds) but also fought through foul trouble for most of the game.
That left most of the scoring load to fall once again on the shoulders of Kingma, who had a game-high 18 points despite 6-of-19 shooting and a scoreless final six minutes. The 5-10 guard added a career-high eight rebounds for the vertically challenged Huskies, who were so strapped they had to play Kingma at the center for short stretches of Friday’s game.
UW also got solid play from fellow Snohomish County products Heard (12 points, eight rebounds) and Sarah Morton (seven assists, matching her career high) but couldn’t quite get over the hump.
The Huskies got off to a solid start in a rather ugly opening few minutes, crawling out to a 6-1 lead while USC missed its first seven shots.
But the Trojans (10-3) eventually got rolling, and after junior Jacki Gemelos hit a 3-pointer to give them a 13-11 lead with 10:17 remaining in the first half, USC never trailed again.
In the opening 11 minutes of the second half, the Huskies had the ball four times with a chance to lead or tie but never converted.
The back-breaking moment came immediately after Argens fed Heard for a nice layup to cut the deficit to 53-47 with 4:40 remaining, only for the Huskies to get whistled for a technical foul after sophomore Charmaine Barlow jawed at one of the USC players.
After that, UW had little to say as the Trojans’ lead quickly swelled to nine and, eventually, hit 10 points when Christina Marinacci’s free throw gave USC a 60-50 lead with 29.8 seconds left.
The Huskies held USC’s top three scorers to a combined 10-of-41 field-goal shooting, prompting UW coach Tia Jackson to call her squad “an excellent defensive team.”
But Jackson offered “no excuses” for the loss, despite the injuries. “We just play the hand we’re dealt,” she said.
The Huskies have had their starting five together for just five games this season, going 3-2 in that span. In just two of those games — wins over Utah and Cal State Northridge — were all five players still around at the end.
Through it all, UW has stayed competitive in all but one game — a blowout loss to Georgia Tech two days before Christmas.
“This is a team that gets after you,” USC coach Michael Cooper said. “They’re only going to get better. I know Coach Tia is just wishing she can get people healthy.”
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