The Arizona women’s basketball team downed Southern California 72-61 on Thursday, extending its winning streak to five straight — and eight of the last nine games.

The Wildcats’ reward: a semifinal showdown with Stanford — the nation’s No. 2 team, which owns two victories over Arizona in 2011 by an average of 31.5 points.

Sophomore guard Davellyn Whyte scored 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting and Arizona held USC (19-12, 10-8) to only 30 percent from the field to advance to the Pacific 10 Conference semifinal for the first time since 2004.

The Wildcats (21-10, 10-8) opened the night on an 8-2 run and saw their lead climb to as high as 19, while never trailing by more than four in the contest as forward Ify Ibekwe racked up her second double-double of the tournament with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

After scoring 23 points in Wednesday’s one-point victory over Oregon, senior forward Soana Lucet added 20 more against USC, grabbing six rebounds and four steals while playing all 40 minutes.

Arizona hasn’t beat Stanford since Feb. 5, 2004, when the Wildcats knocked off the Cardinal 88-83 in Tucson. Since then, Stanford has run off 17 straight wins against the Wildcats.

Friday’s semifinal tips off at 1 p.m.