The Arizona women's basketball team used discipline and ball control to edge Southern Cal 78-73 Saturday in front of 1,760 at McKale Center.

The Wildcats committed a season-low eight turnovers while combining for 24 assists in getting their first sweep in the Pacific 10 Conference since 1993.

"This was a great team effort," UA sophomore forward Adia Barnes said. "We are going to win every time if we only have eight turnovers."

While Arizona's unselfish play and 49 percent shooting wore down the Trojans (11-11, 6-7 in the Pac-10), it was Barnes who delivered the knockout punch by scoring 17 of her team-high 25 points in the second half. Barnes did the damage on 10 of 16 shooting, while adding six rebounds and two assists.

After a slow first half that saw the Wildcats build up a 37-33 lead, Arizona (16-5, 7-5) started the second half with a 9-0 run that seemed to put the game out of reach at 46-33. But Trojan forward Tina Thompson would not be denied as her field goal at 3:29 into the second half started to sneak USC back into the game. While Thompson finished with 32 points, the closest the Trojans would come would be 76-71 with less than a minute remaining.

The Wildcats also received a big effort from senior point guard Brenda Pantoja. Pantoja recorded 10 assists with just one turnover while adding 11 points. Her 10 assists moved her season total to 194, eclipsing her previous high of 191 set last season. Senior forward Andrea Constand gave a solid performance with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists.

"This win really helps our confidence and really helps our status as we look towards the tournament," Barnes said. "Now that we have reached a tie for third place (in the Pac-10), we need to build on that and keep on improving in practice. But we can't get too high after this win because we can't lose sight of our goal to make the NCAA tournament."