Mar. 17, 1997

Florida Ends USC's Season

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Murriel Page tied a career-high 35 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as third-seeded Florida rolled over sixth-seeded Southern California, 92-78 in a Mideast Region second-round game at Gainesville, Florida.

The Lady Gators (23-8), first-round losers a year ago, advanced to the Regional Semifinal for the first time in school history and will face second-seeded Louisiana Tech in the round of 16 next Saturday at West Lafayette, Indiana.

Florida used a 21-2 run to open a 24-3 lead just over 10 minutes into the game on DeLisha Milton's 17-footer. The Lady Gators took a 46-22 halftime lead and led by as much as 37 points before USC made a late run to get within 14 points in the final minute.

Dana Smith had 16 points and seven assists and Milton and Mahogany Hudson each had 10 points for Florida, which shot 56 percent (35-for-63) from the field.

Jodi Parriott scored 16 points and Erica Jackson had 14 for the Women of Troy (20-9), who shot 43 percent (29-for-68). Tina Thompson added 13 points, but was just 3-of-11 from the floor and committed nine turnovers.

USC (78)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Thompson        35  3-11   6-7   3-5  3  4   13
Parriott        28  7-11   0-0   1-2  2  0   16
Campbell        34  5-10   3-5   4-7  1  3   13
Jackson         32  5-14   4-6   4-9  5  2   14
Kr Clark        27   2-9   0-0   0-2  3  4    6
Lewis            1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  1    0
Ki Clark         6   1-1   0-0   0-1  0  0    2
Polk             1   1-2   1-1   1-2  0  0    3
Miller          14   0-3   0-1   0-0  0  2    0
Williams        16   5-7   1-1   2-3  1  2   11
Washington       6   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
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TOTALS         200 29-68 15-21 15-32 15 18   78
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Percentages: FG-.426, FT-.714. 3-Point Goals:
5-25, .200 (Thompson 1-6, Parriott 2-5, Jackson
0-5, Kr Clark 2-7, Polk 0-1, Miller 0-1). Team
rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 5 (Campbell 4,
Parriott). Turnovers: 25 (Thompson 9, Jackson 5,
Kr Clark 3, Parriott 3, Campbell 2, Lewis,
Miller, Williams). Steals: 14 (Kr Clark 5,
Thompson 3, Campbell 2, Jackson 2, Parriott 2).

FLORIDA (92)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Page            35 14-18  7-11  9-16  2  1   35
Bingham         28   2-9   0-0   0-2  1  0    6
D Milton        22   5-8   0-0   0-3  3  4   10
Hudson          26   2-4   6-6   0-3  7  4   10
Smith           37   5-7   1-2   2-4  7  3   16
Stebbins        12   1-1   0-0   0-2  1  2    2
Wright          11   1-2   0-0   0-1  2  2    2
Travis          14   3-7   1-3   0-3  2  1    7
Oneil            3   0-1   0-0   0-1  0  2    0
Freeman          9   2-6   0-1   1-2  0  1    4
Jacobs           3   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 35-63 15-23 12-37 25 20   92
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Percentages: FG-.556, FT-.652. 3-Point Goals:
7-16, .438 (Bingham 2-7, Smith 5-7, Freeman 0-2).
Team rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 3 (D Milton,
Smith, Wright). Turnovers: 26 (Stebbins 5, Travis
5, Smith 4, Page 3, D Milton 2, Freeman 2, Wright
2, Bingham, Hudson, Oneil). Steals: 9 (D Milton
3, Bingham 2, Smith 2, Freeman, Hudson).
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Usc                22   56  -   78
Florida            46   46  -   92
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Technical fouls: None.  A: 3,569. Officials: Duck
Sisk, Greg Smith, Robert Strong.