LOS ANGELES — Heather Oliver scored 17 points, Camille LeNoir had 18 points and eight assists, and Southern California beat No. 16 Arizona State 70-65 in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament on Friday.
The sixth-seeded Trojans shot 52.9 percent and made 10 3-pointers to snap a seven-game losing streak to the third-seeded Sun Devils. It was only the second time a six seed had beaten a third seed in the tournament.
USC came into the matchup having lost four Pac-10 games this season by less than four points.
“All during the year we’ve had a lot of tough breaks,” Southern Cal coach Mark Trakh said. “We didn’t hit the shot or the free throw and down the stretch, we hit big shots, made the big free throws and made the big stops.
“It was a great win for our kids.”
USC (16-14) will play the winner of the game between 10th-seeded Washington and second-seeded California in the semifinals on Saturday.
Lauren Lacey had 14 points and Danielle Orsillo 17 points and seven rebounds for the Arizona State (23-8), which was playing without leading scorer Dymond Simon, who was injured in a loss to No. 2 Stanford. The Sun Devils trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half.
Briann January, who was wearing Simon’s No. 1 jersey, made two consecutive jumpers to make it 63-60 with less than 4 minutes remaining.
“It was a team decision,” January said. “She’s a big part of our team and we wanted to show her how much we cared for her.”
The Trojans shot 50 percent from the field to lead 34-28 at halftime.
“We just knew that we had to come out and play our hearts out. … This could’ve been our last game,” LeNoir said. “Arizona State’s already in the (NCAA) tournament and that was in the back of our minds. It was either go hard or go home.”
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