Cougs Need A Sweep To Stay In Hunt Slumping Usc, Hot Ucla Next Up For Hopeful WSU

Coach Harold Rhodes has the math worked out. Now all his Washington State women’s basketball team has to figure out is how to sweep a series.

The Cougars, respectably hanging around the middle of the Pacific-10 Conference standings at 3-4 and 9-7 overall, are looking for wins against two teams headed in opposite directions.

Southern California (5-12, 1-6) is first up, Thursday at 7 p.m. at Friel Court. The Trojans have lost five of their last six games under first-year coach Chris Gobrecht. Saturday, meanwhile, will mark Gobrecht’s return to No. 18 Washington, where she led the Huskies to nine NCAA Tournaments in 11 years as head coach.

Now - after a one-year stint as head coach at Florida State - Gobrecht is challenged with bringing her alma mater’s (‘77) program back to respectability.

“USC is a team that has the Gobrecht influence,” said Rhodes. “The system is there, although I am not sure the kids have fully adjusted to the system.”

USC, playing with just seven healthy players, is led by Kristin Clark. The 5-foot-7 guard leads the team with 16.3 points per game. Her 3.2 steals per game is tops in the Pac-10.

UCLA, which comes in Saturday at 1 p.m., is on a hot streak, having won five of its last six and 10 of its last 13 games. Maylana Martin, a 6-3 sophomore forward, has been exceptional. She’s averaging 19.8 points (third in conference) and 8.1 rebounds per game (second).

If the Cougars win both games, they’ll finish the first half of the conference season at 5-4. The last time they swept a conference series was against Arizona and ASU in February 1996.

“We feel if we could do that and exceeded 5-4 in the second half that would get us into the (NCAA) tournament,” Rhodes said. “We’re trying not to talk too much about it. We know how important this weekend and next weekend is for us.”

The Cougars play host to ASU and No. 10 Arizona next week.

Lovin’ life as a Lobo

It’s not what she envisioned, but freshman Jennifer Williams isn’t complaining. Williams, a ‘97 Gonzaga Prep graduate, accepted a scholarship at the University of New Mexico with every intention of playing guard and working her way into the starting lineup.

The 6-foot-1 athlete made such an impression on third-year coach Don Flanagan, she instantly earned the starting center job, bumping a veteran along the way. In 19 starts, she is averaging 10 points and leads the team in rebounds with 6.5 a game.

“He (Flanagan) just said he wanted me to go in there and hustle, and try the hardest that you can for as long as you can. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing,” Williams explained.

Another Spokane connection, junior guard Jodi Cory (Mead ‘95), is averaging 2.3 points in 8.8 minutes per game.

The much-improved Lobos (15-4, 5-2 WAC Mountain Division) are averaging 4,322 spectators per game and play host to No. 11 Utah Thursday. The Utes (16-0) lead the Mountain Division at 6-0 and join No. 1 Tennessee (21-0) as the undefeated Top 25 teams.

3-pointers

Oregon lost its second post player Saturday when 6-1 sophomore forward Brianne Meharry injured her knee in the opening minutes of a game against ASU. Meharry, averaging 13.1 and 6.0 rebounds per game, joins 6-5 center Jenny Mowe on the injured list. … Stanford’s Kristin Folkl, who came off the bench and scored 22 points against the Cougars and a Pac-10 season-high 36 against the Huskies, was named Pac-10 player of the week.

Gonzaga (9-9, 1-5) losers of five straight, dropped to seventh place in the WCC. The Zags travel to San Franciso and Santa Clara this weekend where they’ll try to stop a 24-game WCC road losing streak. But it won’t be easy. GU has never beaten USF at War Memorial. SCU has won seven straight against GU and leads the conference at 15-4, 6-0.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: AREA LEADERS Scoring Player, school FG-FGA FT-FTA 3pt Avg. Shelley Massingale, CCS 111-260 78-106 9 16.3 Alli Nieman, UI 101-219 84-119 5 16.2 Andrea Sherer, Whit. 87-173 34-76 1 14.9 Tammy Goyne, NIC 81-173 23-46 23 13.7 Yvonne Kunze, WSU 90-160 35-58 0 13.4 Alana Carlander, CCS 94-239 44-69 36 13.4 Kelli Johnson, UI 88-220 32-37 40 13.1 Susan Woolf, UI 61-179 51-73 32 12.1 Alke Dietel, WSU 80-171 15-25 11 11.9 Sandy Gere, GU 70-174 33-44 25 11.6 Kelli Pilkington, CCS 95-222 36-96 3 11.6 Susan Woolf, UI 66-200 54-76 33 11.5 Tracy Ford, EWU 66-193 27-32 24 11.4 Lydia Ledgerwood, GU 70-176 55-74 7 11.2 Erin Dowhy, NIC 70-144 23-46 0 10.9

Rebounding Stephanie Shelton, CCS, 8.6 (173); Juli Carlson, EWU, 8.2 (140); Sherer, Whit., 7.6 (107); Nieman, UI, 6.9 (125); Kunze, WSU, 6.7 (107). Assists Emily Stuenkel, Whit., 5.5 (66); Shelton, CCS, 4.8 (48); Goyne, NIC, 4.4 (71); Lisa Bocook, CCS, 4.3 (51); Kathyrn Gussett, UI, 4.1 (78); Woolf, UI, 4.1 (77). Steals Goyne, NIC, 4.5 (72); Bocook, CCS, 3.9 (51); Gere, GU, 2.2 (38); Gussett; UI, 2.1 (40); Stuenkel, Whit., 2.0 (24).

Schedule Today: Big Bend CC at SFCC, 6 p.m. Thursday: Salt Lake CC at NIC, 5:30 p.m.; Southern Cal at WSU, 7 p.m. Friday: Willamette at Whitworth, 6 p.m.; Gonzaga at San Francisco, 7 p.m.; Idaho at Pacific, 7 p.m. Saturday: UCLA at WSU 1 p.m.; Utah Valley SC at NIC, 5:30 p.m.; George Fox at Whitworth, 6 p.m.; Blue Mountain at SCC, 6 p.m.; Portland State at Eastern, 7 p.m.; Gonzaga at Santa Clara, 7 p.m.