Despite leading by just four points at halftime against unranked Arizona, No. 10 USC women’s basketball regrouped for a second-half surge to take down the Wildcats 81-64 Monday night at Galen Center.
Per usual, freshman guard JuJu Watkins’ 32 points propelled the Trojans (18-4, 8-4 Pac-12), but her efforts didn’t seem quite as individual in this game as they have been as of late.
“You can’t beat anyone in this league without being a multiple-effort team,” head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said of her team’s presence as a unit Monday.
In fact, two other Trojans hit double figures in the game, including graduate guard Kayla Padilla (15) and junior forward Rayah Marshall (12). Graduate guard McKenzie Forbes had nine. The Wildcats (12-12, 4-8) had four players in double digits, but none had more than 13.
In the first half, the Trojans looked disjointed and unable to maintain control of the ball. They turned the ball over 12 times in that half alone and had a series of bad offensive possessions when players did not seem ready to catch the ball at times, resulting in more turnovers.
In addition to that, the Trojans’ shots were not finding the net right away. Watkins missed her first four attempts while Padilla missed her first three shots. The team made just 20% of its field goals in the quarter, tied for USC’s sixth lowest single-quarter shooting percentage of the season.
“We were getting good shots in the first quarter, they just didn’t happen to go in,” Padilla said. “The message was just to continue to shoot.”
Padilla, however, came into the second quarter with a newfound offensive prowess, as the grad transfer knocked down a rim-around 3-pointer on USC’s first possession to set the tone. As a team, the Trojans missed just two of 11 shots and were 6-for-6 from 3-point land in the quarter.
Yet, the Wildcats held on for the time being, finding ways to maneuver inside the Trojans’ defense for easy layups and putbacks. By halftime, Arizona had 20 points in the paint and nine second-chance points compared to USC’s 10 and zero.
Gottlieb said her team’s energy in the first half was low, calling Arizona the “more aggressive team” to start. But, whatever she said in the locker room at halftime must have worked.
“Words are nothing if the team doesn’t respond,” Gottlieb said of her halftime pep talk. “We completely changed our energy level and we were us.”
And the Trojans did.
The offense looked fully cohesive for the first time all game, and USC put up 23 points in the third quarter, compared to just 11 by Arizona.
Watkins scored 18 of her points in the second half, and she also wreaked havoc on the Wildcats’ defense by driving in and drawing fouls or dishing it outside to a waiting Trojan for a nearly unguarded 3-point attempt. Padilla continued her hot streak, netting two more 3-pointers in the third quarter to bring her streak for five made threes in a row before an eventual miss.
The USC defense also made massive adjustments, only allowing four second-chance points and forcing 12 Wildcats turnovers in the final two frames.
The third and fourth quarters were also keyed by a handful of soul-crushing blocks by Watkins, including a volleyball-esque spike that caused the pink-out Galen Center crowd to erupt. Watkins ended the night with four, but the intensity of the blocks made it feel like she had twice that.
With Hollywood stars, along with current and past professional athletes regularly in attendance now at USC basketball games, all eyes are on Watkins and this top-ranked squad as the Pac-12 tournament approaches and March Madness looms.
Monday’s star studded lineup included actor Will Ferrell and women’s basketball icon Cheryl Miller.
“I think just really reminding myself to play my game will really take me very far,” Watkins said of her mentality through all the outside noise. “Any way I can contribute to the team and get the dub is all that matters.”
Next up, the Trojans travel to the Beaver State to take on Oregon Friday at 7 p.m. followed by a top-ranked matchup against No. 11 Oregon State Sunday at noon.