Jan. 18, 2010

Complete Weekly USC Athletics Review/Preview

Ashley Corral of the women's basketball team and Dwight Lewis of the men's basketball team both led the Trojans to wins over UCLA this week and were named the USC Credit Union Student-Athletes of the Week today (Jan. 18) for the week of Jan. 11-17.

The sophomore guard Corral anchored a composed comeback win by USC over crosstown rival UCLA on Jan. 17 with a game-high 24 points including a perfect 7-of-7 effort from the free-throw line. USC trailed by seven with 10 minutes to go before Corral took a charge to help turn the momentum. Her third 3-pointer of the day leveled the score with 7:15 to go, and she would hit 4 more free throws and a key jumper in the remaining time to help secure the 70-63 USC win. Corral entered the game averaging 16 points per game. The win moved USC past UCLA in the Pac-10 standings, as the Trojans are now 10-6 overall and 4-1 in Pac-10 play with their only conference loss having come to #2 Stanford.

The senior guard Lewis led USC to a 67-46 win at UCLA on Jan. 16 with a game-high 24 points. He scored 17 of USC's 33 first-half points (52 percent) to help the Trojans open a 12-point lead at the break (33-21), nearly matching UCLA's team output. The Trojan lead never got under 12 points the rest of the way. Lewis made 5 of 9 from three-point range to give him 128 career three-point baskets which pushed him into 11th place all-time on the Trojan list. The 24 points by Lewis were a season high and it was his third consecutive 20-point game. The 21-point win was USC's biggest over the Bruins since the 1945 season and the largest loss at Pauley Pavilion for the Bruins since losing by 25 vs. Arizona during the 2004 season.