Black Voices

Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Seattle Times Senior guard, Camille Lenoir goes for the lay up. [Click to enlarge]

USC Basketball experiences a streak of March Madness.

The Men and Women of Troy battled it out in the month of March, but both fell short of the big dance.

The men finished with a 22-13 record, winning six of their last seven games and the Trojans picked up the school's first Pac-10 Tournament Championship with a win over Arizona State, 66-63.

With an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the men faced off against Boston College in the first round.

With the help junior forward Taj Gibson's 24 points and 10-for-10 shooting rate from the field, the Trojans advanced to the second round with a 72-55 win.

Next was Michigan State, against whom the Trojans fought hard but lost 74-69.

Still, junior guard Dwight Lewis finished with 19 points and freshman phenom guard DeMar DeRozan shined with 18 points.

The Men of Troy reached the NCAA Tournament for the third season in a row.

The Trojans will have a promising squad next season with rising sophomores Nikola Vucevic and Leonard Washington leading the way.

If Daniel Hackett, Gibson and Lewis return for their senior years and DeRozan stays around, the Trojans will be in a good position to make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year.

The women's basketball team finished with a 17-15 record and their first-ever trip to the Pac-10 Tournament Championship game.

The Women of Troy defeated Arizona State 70-65 and Cal 69-67 to advance to the championship against the No. 2 seed Stanford.

Senior Camille LeNoir led the way with 13 points, sophomore Kari LaPlante put up 12 points and freshman Briana Gilbreath finished with 10 points.

But, Stanford proved to be too much for the Trojans and they lost 89-64.

On March 26 LeNoir and LaPlante made the Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention list for maintaining cumulative GPAs over 3.0.

LeNoir was also selected to the All Pac-10 Second Team and a Pac-10 All-Tournament Team.

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