EUGENE, Ore. -- The University of Oregon women's basketball team came up short Thursday night at McArthur Court, falling 87-84 to conference foe USC in front of 2,564.
The Ducks (16-11, 7-8 Pac-10) led 82-80 with 2:48 to play after a Micaela Cocks 3-pointer, but failed to score again until a layup by Nia Jackson with four seconds left. By that time, USC (15-11, 9-6) had made 7-of-9 free throws to secure the victory.
Ashley Corral scored a game-high 23 points and dished out 12 assists for the visitors, who also received a 20-point effort from Briana Gilbreath.
Oregon's senior guard duo had impressive outings with Taylor Lilley scoring 22 and Cocks adding 16 on 5-of-10 shooting.
All told, nine players reached double figures in a spirited contest that saw the lead change 14 times.
Rebounding proved to be the key statistic with USC holding a 23-13 advantage on the boards in the second half, including ten on the offensive glass. As a result, second chance points favored the Women of Troy by four points (12-8), one more than the final scoring margin.
Hailey Dunham grabbed a game-high seven rebounds to go with 12 points for USC. Lilley, Amanda Johnson and Jasmin Holliday led Oregon with six boards apiece.
The Ducks battled back from a seven-point deficit at the end of the first half to take a 47-46 lead. Both teams shot better than 50 percent, with USC hitting on 18-of-33 attempts (54.5 percent) and UO on 17-of-32 (53.1).
Gilbreath led all scorers with 15 points in the opening period. Lilley poured in 14 for the Ducks, who hurt themselves with 12 first-half turnovers.
Oregon wraps up its home Pac-10 schedule vs. UCLA on Saturday at 2 p.m.
QUACK TRACKS: Micaela Cocks tied Kedzie Gunderson (2001-06) for eighth place on the UO career games played list at 118...Taylor Lilley recorded the 64th double-figure scoring game of her career, one shy of moving into the top 10 in Oregon history...Lilley reached the 20-point plateau for the 23rd time in her career...The Ducks scored 80 or more points for the fifth straight home game...Saturday's game vs. UCLA will mark the final regular season home game for Cocks, Lilley and fellow senior Lindsey Saffold.
