It’s tough to come away with a win after shooting just 30% from the field, and USC women’s basketball was unable to overcome its offensive woes Sunday to challenge Colorado. The Buffaloes defeated the Trojans 67-54 at Galen Center, marking their second victory over USC this season.
Inconsistency has been an issue for the Trojans, who have not won both games in a weekend since starting conference play. USC defeated Utah by 21 points on Friday but once again could not complete the weekend sweep. The Trojans fall to 11-14 overall and 4-11 in the Pac-12.
At the end of the first quarter, sophomore forward Jordyn Jenkins fell hard on the court and was escorted to the locker room. She did not return to the game. It was a huge loss for USC, as Jenkins is the team’s leading scorer and had already posted 12 points and four rebounds in 19 minutes of play.
The Trojans were also missing junior forward Alissa Pili. USC head coach Gottlieb started out her postgame statement by mentioning the “adverse circumstances” her team faced in the contest.
“[The absences] put us in a situation we wouldn’t have scripted,” Gottlieb said.
“It’s scary losing your best player, and our anchor Alissa is not with us right now so it really hurt the game, but more than anything we wanted to make sure she was okay,” said senior guard Desiree Caldwell of Jenkins’ injury. “After that we just recentered as a team and said, ‘Hey, keep it strong, let’s play together’ ... I wish we would have finished stronger, but we’re really looking forward to the Arizona games.”
USC’s wins and losses this season have been largely dictated by their offensive performance. The Trojans are 10-0 when they’ve scored 70 points or more and 1-14 when they haven’t.
Despite the poor shooting performance, the Trojans played solid defense for most of the game. Colorado jumped ahead with a 10-0 run stretching across the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second, which included 2-for-3 shooting from three. After that stretch, USC cracked down on defense, allowing it to stay in the game well into the second half.
Gottlieb also said she was pleased with how her team protected the ball against one of the conference’s tougher defensive teams. The Trojans had 11 turnovers, three fewer than the Buffaloes.
One of the bright spots from the weekend was freshman forward Rayah Marshall, who posted back-to-back double-doubles and extended her double-digit scoring streak to nine games. On such a young team with only three departing seniors, Marshall’s growth this season is an encouraging sign of things to come.
USC will finish out the regular season with a road trip to the Grand Canyon State where it will face Arizona State on Thursday and No. 8 Arizona on Saturday. This will be the Trojans’ final chance to polish up before the conference tournament begins March 2.
Gottlieb is pleased with how far her team has come this season.
“We’ve had our ups and downs, but Colorado was our first Pac-12 game, so watching that film back six weeks later, we’ve really developed as a team,” Gottlieb said. “I think we’re a more confident basketball team, a better defensive basketball team, we understand our weapons and offense better … I hope we’re ready to compete to the best of our ability until they tell us we can’t anymore.”