On National World Basketball Day, No. 6 USC women’s basketball (10-0) wrapped up non-conference play with an 85-77 victory over Long Beach State (5-5) Thursday afternoon at Walter Pyramid. USC was without its two leading scorers, freshman guard JuJu Watkins and junior center Rayah Marshall, both due to illness for the matchup.
“I’m happy for us that we had to go through some adversity and figure some things out,” head coach Lindsey Gottlieb said. “I think that’ll help us with what’s coming in the Pac-12. But I never wavered in our confidence.”
USC graduate forward McKenzie Forbes had a career-high 36 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Gottlieb labeled the performance a “flu game,” as Forbes had missed the week of practice and shootarounds due to an illness.
“I was just trying to get back this morning, and we were kind of playing [my status] by ear,” Forbes said. “But just a huge credit to this group. We came out and got it done, missing a lot of big pieces.”
USC graduate guard Kayla Padilla had a season-high 16 points, leading the team with four made 3-pointers.
“[Padilla] is a big-time player who we knew was going to come out and make plays,” Gottlieb said.
With Watkins — and her 26.8 points a game — out on Thursday, USC was forced to find offense elsewhere beyond its talented freshman. USC succeeded early from beyond the arc, converting on six threes in the first half. Padilla was the spark plug that USC needed from deep, finishing the first half with three triples.
“The coaching staff and my teammates have really been wanting me to shoot the ball,” Padilla said. “It helps when you have the encouragement of others.”
Even with USC’s success from three earlier, Long Beach established an immediate presence in the paint, out-rebounding the Trojans 28 to 18 in the first half. The inside game for the Beach allowed them to stay neck and neck with USC through the first half.
Yet, 15 turnovers in the half from the Beach helped USC maintain a nine-point lead heading to halftime at 40-31.
“Tonight was a really good example of how we have a lot of length and try to use that to be disruptive on other teams,” Gottlieb said.
The third quarter was a different story for USC. Its early success from three had gone cold, shooting 3-for-11 from range in the third quarter. Outside of Forbes’s nine points in the third, the offensive production of USC dwindled.
Long Beach junior guard Lovely Sonnier had eight points on 4-for-4 shooting in the third quarter, creating a rocking atmosphere in Walter Pyramid. Sonnier’s buzzer-beating layup to end the third quarter helped the Beach outscore the Trojans 21 to 19 in the frame.
But despite the boost in momentum for Long Beach, the Trojans didn’t waver, still holding a seven-point lead heading into the final period.
“The message came from Kenzie … ‘Let’s get our s— together,’” Gottlieb said after a poor third-quarter performance. “We got to stop the run, but also get back to ourselves and what we need to do.”
Long Beach didn’t go down without a fight. Junior guard Savannah Tucker had herself a quarter, with ten points to keep her squad within single digits for the latter part of the fourth.
Forbes’s 14 points in the fourth quarter kept USC atop Long Beach. A couple of trips for Forbes to the free throw line in the final minutes sealed the win for the Trojans.
No. 6 USC now enters Pac-12 conference play, and its first test will be the No. 2 UCLA Bruins next Saturday. It will be the first time in USC-UCLA matchup history that both teams are undefeated in the top 10 of the AP poll.
“We don’t shy away from the excitement around it,” Gottlieb said. “To have the rivalry game be so close and have both teams be so good and exciting is just really good for women’s basketball.”