No. 10 women’s basketball flexes offense, thumps Ducks 88-51

The No. 10 Trojans started the Oregon road trip off strong with a 88-51 victory over the Oregon Ducks on Friday night at Matthew Knight Arena.

USC wasted no time proving why they’re a top-10 team in the nation, jumping out to a 15-2 lead before the Ducks called their first timeout. The Trojans continued the impressive shooting to a 29-7 lead after one quarter, punctuated by freshman guard Juju Watkins’ 14 points in the opening frame.

“We just all had confidence in each other to make the right play, and then just take what they gave us,” graduate forward Kaitlyn Davis said. “So it was really just a team effort and knowing what we did the first time and adjusting to the second game.”

The second quarter was more of the same and culminated in a Watkins buzzer beater to give the Trojans a 57-21 lead going into the half.

The Ducks did not let the first half discourage them, as they went on a 10-0 run in the third quarter. However, the bigger story was Watkins taking a hard fall and quickly exiting the game before heading to the locker room. The Trojans maintained their composure despite Watkins’ brief absence and kept the Ducks at arm’s length, boasting a 70-42 lead going into the final quarter.

Watkins returned in the fourth quarter and reached a total of 33 points, her 10th 30-point game of the season to tie USC legend Cheryl Miller for the most 30-point games in a season in Trojan history.

“It’d be impressive to break a record as a freshman with X number of games left, but when you say ‘broke Cheryl Miller’s record,’ it just speaks to the gravity of it,” head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I can’t say enough about our young superstar, she just keeps getting better. She’s coachable. She learns from the film.”

The effort was apparent all game long and the stat sheet reflected it, as the Trojans outrebounded a Ducks team with a noticeable size advantage in 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Kennedy Basham and 6-foot-8 junior center Phillipina Kyei.

“It’s just a testament to all of us. It’s a team effort,” Davis said. “We have to box out the bigs, our guards [are behind] and we know they have our back and we have theirs.”

Davis in particular was a standout on the glass, as she finished with her first double-double in a Trojan uniform to go along with five assists.

“She was complete. She’s an X-factor for us,” Gottlieb said. “I know she doesn’t maybe get as much attention as our top scorers. But for us to be as good as we want to be, she’s gotta be really good and she was.”

The Trojans will play No. 11 Oregon State in Corvallis on Sunday, a team coming off three straight ranked wins.