Conference play begins in L.A.

The Cardinal head south to begin conference play against USC on Thursday evening and UCLA on Saturday afternoon.

You can listen to both games on KZSU and watch them on the home team All-Access: USC All-Access and UCLA All-Access.

The weekend in L.A. has in the past been one of the most troublesome for the Cardinal, but it's hard to know what to expect this season.

USC and UCLA were expected to be in the top tier of the Pac-12 this season. They were picked to finish second and fourth, respectively, but are currently the two bottom teams in the conference.

  USC Trojans

The Trojans have considerable experience and talent. They returned four starters from the team that reached the WNIT finals last season and added two MacDonald's All-American freshmen, but they've lost half of their games this season. Granted, they had a very hard non-conference schedule (ranked #21 in the nation by Collegiate Basketball News). Four of their five losses were against ranked teams — Georgia, Notre Dame, Gonzaga and Texas A&M.

They suffered a devastating loss halfway through the game against Texas A&M week before last when redshirt senior Jacki Gemelos tore her ACL for the fourth time. They rallied to almost win that game, losing by just one point, and defeated Pepperdine last week by a narrow margin.

They return to the Galen Center for the game against Stanford after almost a month on the road and are no doubt eager to rack up a conference win.

The Trojans' probable starters are:

• #15, 6'1" senior guard Briana Gilbreath has been a noted Pac-10 defensive player for the past three years. Now in her final season, she continues to be strong on offense as well as defense. She is the Trojans' top scorer (12.7 ppg), has the most steals and is the steadiest ball-handler (2.3 assists to 1.6 turnovers). She averages 2.5 blocks (#2 in the Pac-12 and #24 in the nation) and 5.1 rebounds per game.


• #11, 6'2" sophomore forward Cassie Harberts is a powerful post player for the Trojans. She started in every game last season as a freshman. She averages 11.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.


• #24, 5'9" senior guard Ashley Corral is USC's all-time leader in career 3-pointers. Her current total is 250. Almost two-thirds of her shots are from beyond the arc, and she makes almost 40% of them for a total of 11.2 points per game. Her average of 2.7 3-pointers per game is #1 in the Pac-12 and #25 in the nation.


• #00, 6'1" junior forward Christina Marinacci is the Trojans' leading rebounder with an average of 6.4 per game. Almost half of them are O-boards.


• #21, 6'1" freshman forward Alexyz Vaioletama is the Trojans' star rookie. She averages 5.1 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.

USC has a very short bench: redshirt junior guard Stefanie Gilbreath, freshman guard Ariya Crook and sophomore forward Desireé Bradley.

In addition to Gemelos, USC has two players out for the season due to injury: freshman forward Deanna Calhoun and redshirt freshman forward Thaddesia Southall.

Not elibible to play this season are junior forward Kate Oliver who transferred from Marist and freshman guard Kiki Alofaituli who decommitted from ASU and then signed with USC.

Here are USC's 2011-12 statistics and roster.

  UCLA Bruins

It's not surprising that UCLA is not doing as well as expected. They lost their key player, senior forward Jasmine Dixon, to a ruptured Achilles tendon before the season began. She led the Bruins in rebounding and steals last season and was second in scoring.

Junior forward Markel Walker missed the first seven games of the season recovering from thumb surgery.

Injury struck again last week when junior forward Atonye Nyingifa tore her ACL near the end of the Bruins' game against Tennessee. In an unfortunate deja vu, Nyingifa had been leading the Bruins in rebounding and steals and was second in scoring.

This is the Bruins' probable starting five:

• #35, 6'1" senior guard Rebekah Gardner is the Bruins' leading scorer with 15.2 points per game and the second- best rebounder (5.9 per game)


• #23, 6'1" junior guard/forward Markel Walker is now the leading rebounder with 7.8 per game and the second-best scorer (12.0 ppg).


• #1, 5'7" sophomore guard Thea Lemberger, who plays the point, has had 35 assists with 29 turnovers in eleven games. She averages 10.4 points and 2.3rebounds per game


• #20, 6'1" sophomore forward/guard Rhema Gardner avergages 5.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. She's Rebekah's younger sister.


• #5, 5'4" junior guard Mariah Williams averages 4.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.

Coming off the bench for UCLA are freshman guard Moriah Faulk, freshman forward Kacy Swain, sophomore forward/center Corinne Costa and freshman guard Madeline Brooks.

The Bruins do not have any strong long-range shooters. As a team, they average just 3.5 3-pointers per game at a rate of 30%. Without Nyingifa, they average seven steals and 2.5 blocks per game. They have more turnovers than assists — their ratio is 0.7.

Here are UCLA's 2011-12 statistics and their roster.