Freshman guard Avery Howell scored a season-high 18 points, sophomore guard JuJu Watkins added 16 points and seven rebounds, and No. 4 Southern California nearly notched a second-quarter shutout to defeat Purdue 79-37 on Wednesday in West Lafayette.
The Trojans (18-1, 8-0 Big Ten) faced a challenging first quarter, trailing by one point, but recovered with a staunch 31-2 run in the second frame to carry themselves into their 14th consecutive win. USC has recorded four conference victories this season with a winning margin of 20 or more points.
In the first quarter, Purdue started confidently with a 9-0 run, led by fifth-year guard and transfer Destini Lombard, who scored eight points in the first three minutes.
USC had to make quick adjustments to gain ground on Purdue’s zone defense. Watkins activated her athleticism by sneaking behind the backline of the Boilermaker defense and catching the alley-oop assist from graduate guard Talia von Oelhoffen to finish at the rim with the backboard layup.
The hope for a potential upset in front of a crowd of 7,543 inside Mackey Arena would be short-lived after Purdue’s 14-5 run in the opening five minutes. The Boilermakers closed out the first quarter with a 16-15 lead after the Trojans closed out the opening period on a 10-2 run.
USC brought tenacity into the second quarter by increasing ball pressure to disrupt Purdue’s offense, forcing the Boilermakers into ball insecurity and missed shots. A 31-0 run skyrocketed the Trojans’ lead.
Purdue was scoreless for over eight minutes, committing eight turnovers during the same span.
Freshman guard Jordyn Poole ended the run after making the fade-away jumper near the charity stripe on a shot-clock buzzer with 1:57 left in the half. Poole accounted for Purdue’s lone bucket in the second quarter.
The Trojans, despite the one-point deficit after the first, led 46-18 at halftime. Purdue would not recover in the rest of the contest.
“I think our ball pressure in the beginning of the game was very off, and then once we picked up that, disrupting their offense kind of took over the game for us,” freshman guard Kennedy Smith said in the postgame press conference. “Especially in that second quarter and third quarter and the rest of the game. Just ball pressure disrupted their offense for sure.”
Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb acknowledged Purdue’s initial success in making shots and adjusting to the zone defense. After trailing by one point in the first quarter, USC’s mindset transitioned to a dominant run in the second quarter.
“They were playing a zone. I said [during the first timeout] we gotta get out in transition,” Gottlieb said. “We need to get some stops to do that, so that’s what they did.”
USC lost starting graduate forward Kiki Iriafen for the remainder of the game after she tweaked her ankle in the second quarter. Gottlieb said the Trojans are hopeful it won’t be “too significant.”
Watkins set the tone of the third quarter by connecting a 3-pointer, and Howell followed suit by dropping a pair of threes and two shots from the charity stripe.
Watkins, the second Trojan to finish in double figures, had 18 points, went 6-for-15 from the field, grabbed seven rebounds and notched two assists. Rayah Marshall had a game-high 13 rebounds and three blocks while von Oelhoffen dished out six assists and grabbed four rebounds.
The Trojan freshmen were the leading acts on the hardwood with their stellar play on defense and in transition. They were led by Howell, who finished with a season-high 18 points, a career-high four made threes and went 6-for-6 at the free-throw line.
“Coming off the bench I tried to be that spark for the team, whatever that needs to be for our team is to help us improve.” Howell said. “I feel like defensively, I kind of just came in with a lot of energy overall, which I think hopefully helped the rest of the team and kind of got us into a rhythm. I definitely think the defensive presence was important.”
Smith was the third Trojan to finish in double figures. She added 12 points, shooting 3-for-5 from the 3-point line. Freshman forward Vivian Iwuchukwu had eight points, and freshman guard Kayleigh Heckel had six.
Howell and Smith combined for six steals and seven made threes.
Gottlieb highlighted that relying on first-year students in critical situations makes the team more versatile and substantial.
“They’re a huge part of everything that we do, offensively and defensively,” Gottlieb said. “We have a lot of belief in that freshman class, we put them in very big moments and very big situations and they deliver like we expect them to,” Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb believes in the team’s ability to adapt and make necessary adjustments, aiming for better starts in future games.
“I did like the bounce back, but we’re playing really good teams,” Gottlieb said. “It’s not that anyone’s not good, but we want to be able to control the things we can control and come out with better starts for sure.”
Purdue (8-11, 0-8 Big Ten) only had one player in double figures in its seventh straight loss. Freshman forward Kendall Puryear came off the bench and led the way with 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting and two rebounds.
Lombard finished with eight points, going 2-for-2 from the 3-point line. Sophomore guard Rashunda Jones added six points.
Purdue’s offense struggled, shooting just 30.6 % from the field and allocating only nine assists on 15 made baskets. The loss to the Trojans was an added setback for the Boilermaker, who have now dropped multiple games to top-four teams in the AP Top 25.
USC, flourished from beyond the arc, landed 11 of their 30 three-point attempts. Purdue, on the other hand, failed to match that performance, finishing in the end 2-for-15 from three-point range.
Next week, the Trojans will have a nice break before hosting No. 23 Minnesota on Jan. 30 at Galen Center.