“Even if Coach Lindsay told me I had to play the point guard; I probably couldn’t do it well but I’ll try.”
That’s the spirit junior center Rayah Marshall is bringing to USC’s third-ever Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament championship appearance.
Top-seeded Stanford is the only hurdle left for second-seeded USC to claim its second Pac-12 title in program history (the first came in 2014) — and the Trojans will need everything in their arsenal to bring home this victory.
The only time USC and Stanford have met in a Pac-12 tournament championship was 2009, when the Trojans suffered a brutal 89-64 loss. Since then, they’ve split a 1-1 record in tournament matchups.
Coming off of a double-overtime win against crosstown rival UCLA has to be a momentum booster for USC. Junior center Clarice Akunwafo, who’s expected to be a key rotational big on Sunday, established her interior presence that game. The 6-foot-6 center kept the Bruins’ leading scorer, Lauren Betts, scoreless whenever she was on the court.
“[Clarice] has been terrific. She’s an incredible athlete — a really good individual post defender,” head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “She screens and rolls really hard, so she’s a hugely important player for us. I think she’s shown a ton of improvement this year.”
But having one solid post defender won’t be enough to contain the Cardinal’s dynamic frontcourt of Pac-12 Player of the Year Cameron Brink and Most Improved Player of the Year Kiki Iriafen. Luckily, the Trojans have three capable answers in Marshall, Akunwafo and graduate forward Kaitlyn Davis.
“[Stanford] comes into every game with two incredible post players who pose a problem,” Gottlieb said. “If you aren’t able or willing to guard them, you’re not going to win. ... So, our post players have to be really willing to run and battle and take away layups. And then, obviously, we need to guard the 3-point line in [Hannah] Jump. But, defensively, I think we know the task is at hand, and we got to just do it.”
USC boasts a perfect 15-0 record whenever Marshall has scored at least 10 points this season.
“When it comes to winning, I’m going to do whatever it takes for my team, even through the scars, through the bruises,” Marshall said. “I’m just looking to be there in ways that they need me to be there.”
In the teams’ only other meetup this season, USC struggled with foul trouble. It was one foul-out after another in February’s game at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion. Marshall picked up her fifth in the third quarter, and Akunwafo and Davis also fouled out midway through the fourth. That left 5-foot-10 graduate guard Roxane Makolo and 6-foot-1 sophomore guard Taylor Bigby covering the 6-foot-4 Brink.
Despite losing all three of its bigs, USC still outscored Stanford in the second half 36-27 for a nine-point win.
USC’s leading scorer, freshman guard JuJu Watkins, claimed 51 of the team’s points, setting a school record against the Pac-12 regular-season champs. Her efforts this season earned her Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors.
Watkins, who had to temporarily leave Friday’s game against UCLA twice with ankle injuries, is good to go for the all-or-nothing game.
“She’s been doing treatment pretty much around the clock,” Gottlieb said after Saturday’s practice. “JuJu is incredibly tough; it’s an overused word, but she’s really, really tough. I expect that she’ll play and give us everything that she has.”
If JuJu’s career-high 51 is any indicator of what she’ll bring to Sunday’s game, Cardinal fans better tuck that gambling money away and save it for a rainy day.
USC will face off against Stanford at 2 p.m. Sunday at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.