WOMEN’S BASKETBALL / TONIGHT’S GAMES : USC, UCLA Try to Regroup

Its Pacific 10 Conference winning streak ended and its conference lead slightly reduced, the USC women’s basketball team will play host to last-place Arizona State tonight while Arizona visits UCLA. Both games start at 7.

Coach Cheryl Miller’s Trojans, 17-2 overall and 10-1 in the Pac-10, get an apparent breather at the Lyon Center after losing at Washington, 63-55, last Saturday. Arizona State is 2-16 and 0-10.

UCLA (12-8, 7-4) faces a tougher task against Arizona (11-8, 5-6) at the Wooden Center. Sunday, the teams will switch opponents for games at 2 p.m.

A week after losing by 15 points to USC, Coach Kathy Olivier’s Bruins beat 15th-ranked Washington, 65-62, last Thursday at Seattle. UCLA thus enabled USC, despite the Trojans’ loss to Washington, to keep the Pac-10 lead, by two games over the Huskies and Stanford, both of whom are 8-3 in conference play.

The Bruins got another big weekend from senior low-post star Natalie Williams. In victories at Washington and Washington State, she scored her 17th and 18th double-doubles of the season, getting a total of 39 points and 26 rebounds.

UCLA is fifth in the Pac-10, a game ahead of Arizona and a half-game behind Oregon.