March 3, 2000

Box Score

LOS ANGELES - Three different USC players converted on one-of-two free throw attempts in the final minute of the game to give USC an 81-78 victory over California Friday night at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. The victory gave the Trojans a split with the Golden Bears for the season and improved their record to 13-12, 8-7 in the Pac-10. Meanwhile, the loss snapped the Bears two game-winning streak and dropped their record to 9-16, 4-11 in the Pac-10.

"We put them on the free throw line too many times," said Cal head coach Marianne Stanley. "You can't do that and expect to win. We also needed to be more aggressive on offense."

Cal senior forward Paige Bowie scored a season-high 21 points to lead all scorers, becoming the 15th player in school history to reach 1,000 points. She began the day four points shy of the mark and surpassed Chris Sellin (1,008 points) for 14th place (1,017) on the Cal all-time scoring chart. The 999th and 1000th point came on an 18-foot jumper to the left of the key with 11:04 left in the first half and cut USC's lead to 20-18.

"It feels all right," said Bowie regarding reaching the 1,000-point milestone. "I wasn't thinking about it during the game. I just wish we would have won."

USC held its biggest lead of the game at 17-10 with 14:21 to go in the first half and led 41-38 at intermission. Cal opened the second half with an 8-1 spurt to grab its biggest lead of the game at 46-42. Redshirt sophomore forward Kawai Matthews from Los Angeles posted six of her career-high 11 points during that run.

The Bears four-point lead was the biggest lead either team would have the rest of the way, as the game was tied on 12 occasions in the second half. Cal junior guard Courtney Johnson split two free throws with 1:15 left in the game to tie the contest for the final time at 78-78.

With a combined 83 free throws attempted and 53 fouls called for the game, it was not surprising that the game came down to foul shooting during the final minute. After Johnson tied the game, Cal was then whistled for the first of its three fouls in the final minute, while USC had no fouls called against it. Tiffany Elmore, who led USC with 15 points, made the back end of two free throws to put her team up for good at 79-78 with 53 ticks on the clock. Denise Woods and Tashara Carter also split two free throw attempts to give the Trojans a three-point victory.

Down three with 6.8 seconds remaining, the Bears had the ball with a chance to tie the game with a three-pointer but had to go the length of the floor to do so. Shavaki Jackson dribbled the ball up the court and got the ball in the hands of Bowie, who ranks third all-time in school history for three pointers made. With about 1 second left in regulation, Bowie attempted to launch a three-pointer, but a sea of hands disrupted the shot, and no foul was called.

"They (the Trojans) switched on a screen," said Stanley. "Shavaki did what she was supposed to do. She got the ball up the court and into Paige's hands. But, Paige wasn't allowed to extend her arms fully on the shot."

Also in double figures for Cal were Johnson with 16 points and Lauren Ashbaugh with 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds. The Trojans also received 13 points from Tiffany Washington and 12 points each from Tashara Carter and Denise Woods.

Cal held a 47.4 to 40.4 percent shooting advantage from the floor and a 45-31 edge on the boards, including 19-15 on the offensive glass. The difference in the game was that USC converted on 29-of-46 (63.0 percent) of its free throws, while Cal was 23-37 (62.2 percent). The Trojans also had a season-low 10 turnovers and scored 24 points off Cal's 20 turovers.

Cal looks to earn a road split Sunday at UCLA at 2 p.m., before wrapping up the season at home next week against the Arizona schools.