No. 11 USC women’s basketball’s (14-4, 4-4 Pac-12) recent struggles continued in a down-to-the-wire 62-59 loss versus the Washington Huskies (13-6, 3-5) on Sunday at Galen Center. After a hot start to the season, the Trojans have cooled down, losing three of their last four games, including their first home loss of the season.
“It’s the first time I thought that we came out here and said, ‘Oh, we’re wearing USC on our jerseys, and therefore we’re going to win,’” head coach Lindsey Gottlieb said. “And you can’t win like that.”
USC graduate guard Kayla Padilla scored a team-high 20 points, hitting a season-high six threes.
USC freshman guard JuJu Watkins struggled from the field all game, finishing with 20 points on 8-of-27 shooting.
Washington senior forward Lauren Schwartz scored a game-high 21 points, along with three rebounds and three assists.
In the recent losses, the glaring problem has been the Trojans’ shooting inefficiencies from the field. Against the Huskies, the struggles continued and were apparent early on in the game. The Trojans finished the game shooting 37% from the field.
For the Trojans, their slow start from the field mixed with low energy, which hurt them the rest of the way. The whole game USC found itself fighting an uphill battle, only holding a lead for one minute in the first half.
“I didn’t like our energy. I didn’t like our juice in the first half,” Gottlieb said.
On the other hand, the Huskies’ patient offense and smart shot selections had them leading the rest of the game.
The Huskies simply came into this game wanting to be the more aggressive team, and the results showed on the court. Washington completely dominated the paint, out-rebounding the Trojans 39 to 24.
But, even after a sluggish first-half performance, the Trojans still managed to stay alive until the final buzzer. Trailing by eight points with 30 seconds to go, there was little hope left for Trojan fans in the stands.
“The first half was a bit stubborn, like we recognized what we needed to change, but we’re not necessarily executing on that,” Padilla said. “And at that point we had a great second half, but we were just trying to climb out of all that.”
However, back-to-back 3-pointers by Watkins and Padilla in the next nine seconds completely changed the atmosphere in Galen Center. After the six straight points, the Trojans were only down three with 27 seconds left. Not a single fan was in their seat anymore, as there was newfound energy in the building.
Following a free throw trip for the Huskies, putting their lead back to four points, the Trojans responded again. Padilla, who had the hot hand all game, converted on a second-chance 3-pointer to bring the margin back to one point.
With 1.3 seconds left, the Huskies inbounded from their baseline with a rocking Galen Center behind them. The Huskies got the inbound pass in, but a split-second later, graduate forward McKenzie Forbes attempted to steal the ball in the process.
While everybody in the stands thought USC had pulled off a miraculous comeback, the referee whistled a foul on Forbes for her steal attempt. The Huskies headed back to the line to ice the game, surviving a last-second comeback by the Trojans.
The Trojans head back on the road for another two-game stretch, starting at Stanford on Friday at 7 p.m. and Cal Sunday at noon.