Arizonaa travels to LA to face depleted Trojans

Eric M. Jukelevics Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman forward Elizabeth Pickney (45) shoots in front of Stanford freshman center Cori Enghusen (right, 51) and senior forward Regan Freuen (15) in the Wildcats' win over Stanford. The Wildcats are in California today to play USC.

The Wildcats (16-9, 11-5 Pacific 10 Conference) face Southern Cal (7-18, 3-13) tonight at the L.A. Sports Arena at 8 p.m.

USC has lost four straight and 13 of its last 15 games, and Arizona defeated them in the previous meeting all the way back in the first weekend of January, 73-63.

"USC is trying to salvage their season," UA head coach Joan Bonvicini said. "They have a lot of good athletes and they are an excellent rebounding team. They're going to play hard."

It will be a bittersweet end to the season for the Trojans, who have lost a number of players to injuries.

Senior guard Kristin Clark tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee; her sister Kim, a junior guard, broke her leg during soccer season and has not played at all this season; junior guard Erica Mashia recovered from a two-year hip injury, only to return and find out that she doesn't have an ACL in one of her knees; junior guard Kiyoko Miller injured her right shoulder; and senior center Adrian Williams has been playing in pain because of a bad right foot.

Senior weekend at USC won't be the same this year.

"It won't be emotional because it's the end of the season, it will be emotional because of regret of what could have happened," USC head coach Chris Gobrecht said.

Williams is averaging 14.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game for the Trojans. Freshman guard Tiffany Elmore is averaging 12 points.

Don't expect Arizona to go easy on USC, which currently sits at the bottom of the Pac-10 standings. In college basketball, every game counts, especially when you get closer to the postseason.

"We're going into L.A. to play well," UA assistant coach Denise Dove said. "We've really had a good second half of the conference season. The players have done a really good job of focusing and being ready to play."

Bonvicini talked to the players about the NCAA Tournament for the first time after practice Monday, and says that will probably be the only time she will talk to the team about it because she feels they already know what they have to do.

"We've shown (ourselves) to be a better road team, and difficult trips have prepared us for this weekend," UA assistant coach Karen Caires said. "We just need to keep the intensity up, control the tempo and change our defense often. Our focus the past couple weeks has been winning each half as it comes along."