UW women lose to USC

SEATTLE — Michael Cooper didn’t use any curse words to describe the University of Washington women’s basketball team on Thursday night.

The USC coach didn’t have to.

A few hours after receiving a written reprimand from the Pac-10 Conference for using a curse word in reference to rival UCLA in a post-game press conference, Cooper watched his USC women’s basketball team rally from a double-digit, second-half deficit for a 69-65 win over UW.

USC’s Ashley Corral, a former Washington prep star who moved from Snohomish to Vancouver in the sixth grade, scored 14 of her 19 points in the second half to help spark the comeback. Corral had 11 points and three 3-pointers in a span of less than three minutes as USC used a 16-2 run to turn a five-point deficit into a 62-53 lead with 3:40 remaining.

“We knew it was coming,” Huskies coach Tia Jackson said of Corral’s outburst. “She’s a kid who wants to take over a game.”

UW sophomore Kristi Kingma, Corral’s former Mill Creek Wolfpack teammate for three summers before mother Hala Corral got a job promotion that sent the family south, tried to rally the Huskies down the stretch but couldn’t get UW any closer than three points. Kingma scored 10 of her 19 points in the final 3:10, including a pair of free throws to cut the Trojans’ lead to 68-65 with 22.6 seconds left.

“Every time I hit a shot, she was saying, ‘C’mon, why’d you do that?’” Corral said of her former youth teammate. “She’d hit one, and I’d say the same thing to her. It’s always fun playing against her.”

Kingma said she was “trying to get in (Corral’s) head a little bit,” but acknowledged that it didn’t work.

“She’s a great player,” Kingma said. “Growing up with her, she was always taking over games.”

UW senior Sami Whitcomb snapped out of a three-game scoring slump with a team-high 22 points — all of them coming in the final 301/2 minutes. She added 11 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season.

Whitcomb sparked the Huskies’ 18-5 run midway through the first half, helping UW pull out to a 33-22 lead.

Whitcomb took awhile to get going. Her first basket came 91/2 minutes into the game, yet she quickly followed that layup with a pair of 3-pointers and a jumper from the wing in a span of less than three minutes.

A flurry of UW turnovers helped USC close out the first half with eight unanswered points after the Huskies had been effective breaking the Trojans’ press for most of the half. But a pair of Whitcomb 3-pointers early in the second half helped UW pull back ahead by 10 before the Trojans (11-6 overall, 5-1 in the Pac-10) made their run.

USC finally caught the Huskies with 7:35 remaining in the game, tying the score at 51 on a Kari LaPlant layup. Corral hit 3-pointers on USC’s next two possessions to give the Trojans their biggest lead to that point, then added another for a 60-51 lead with 4:30 remaining.

Corral missed three free-throw attempts in the final minute to keep the Huskies in the game. Kingma got fouled on a 3-point attempt with 22.6 seconds left and hit two free throws to pull the Huskies within three points, but a USC free throw six seconds later put the game out of reach. Kingma and Whitcomb both missed 3-point attempts in the final seconds as the clock ran out.

Regina Rogers scored eight points for UW. The sophomore post scored two quick baskets in the opening minutes of the game but was seen vomiting near the Huskies’ bench a few minutes later. Rogers, who has been showing flu-like symptoms all week, returned to the floor and played 25 minutes for the Huskies. On several occasions, Rogers went to the floor chasing loose balls, and at one point she had to change jerseys because she got blood on her shirt.

UW (8-9, 3-4) has now lost three consecutive games after a hot start in conference play.

But Cooper had nothing bad to say about his opponent this week. After being asked if he had any adjectives to describe the Huskies, he looked down and said nothing for almost 10 seconds.

“They’re a good basketball team,” he finally offered.