Feb. 21, 1998

In a day on which the Bruins honored the 1978 National Championship team and the 15 greatest players of all-time, the current edition of the UCLA women's basketball team was a part of history as well as it dealt USC an 87-73 defeat before a regular season record crowd of 7,258 in Pauley Pavilion.

After USC charged out to the early lead, holding as much as a 27-19 advantage at the 9:30 mark, UCLA rallied to take the lead, 38-36, on a pair of free throws by sophomore point guard Erica Gomez with 3:59 remaining in the half and was never headed. Gomez who scored 14 of her season-best 17 points in the first half, including nine of 10 from the free throw line, helped stake the Bruins to a 46-40 halftime margin.

The Bruins scored the first seven points of the second half, four by sophomore forward Marie Philman, to lead 53-40 at the 16:58 mark and USC could get no closer than nine points the rest of the way. The last time was at 63-54 with 11:30 to go in the game.

USC was led by junior center Adrain Williams who matched UCLA's Maylana Martin with a game-high 24 points. Williams also pulled down a game-best 12 rebounds. Junior guard Kristin Clark added 20 more points for the Women of Troy who fell to 10-13, 5-9 in the Pac-10. Philman chipped in with 15 points for the Bruins who improved to 16-7, 11-3 in the Conference.

The record crowd total was the third highest ever for a women's game at Pauley Pavilion. It surpassed the previous regular season record crowd of 5,662 set earlier this season versus Stanford.