LeNoir scored in double figures for the second time in the tournament and 22nd time this season. Her 25 points were the sixth best in a tournament semifinal game. 21 came in the second half.
“It was just really a hard-fought game, and it is just sad that somebody had to come up on the short end,” Cal head coach Joanne Boyle said. "I could not be more proud of them. They gave everything in their tank.
"We put ourselves in a hole a little bit early, but they fought tooth and nail to get back into it, and I feel they did everything they could to win this game.”
Gray-Lawson was asked about her recent knee sprain.
“I'm fine," she said. "All I can do is to continue to rehab and get better. I personally feel like I am at 100 percent right now.”
After failing to beat a ranked team this season prior to the tournament, USC has done so twice in two days (They beat No. 16/25 Arizona State to advance to the semis, 70-65).
USC will be the lowest-seeded team ever to appear in the tournament championship game. They will try to duplicate the feat of their men's team, who won an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament earlier Saturday.
"We made it more interesting than we should have down the stretch, but it was a great game," Trakh said. "I'm just really thrilled that we're in the Pac-10 finals.”
For the eighth time in eight years, the No. 2 seed will not win the tournament.
The California Golden Bears now fall to 16-4 (25-6) and the USC Women of Troy improve to 10-9 (20-11). USC will face the winner of the second semifinal of the evening, either Stanford (18-1, 28-4) or UCLA (10-9, 17-14).
Courtesy of SportsPageMagazine.com
Photo Courtesy of Eric Wade
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