This article was updated at 5:33 p.m. PT with quotes.
In their first year as members of the Big Ten, the UCLA Bruins are conference champions.
After beating Indiana and Michigan earlier this weekend, USC women’s basketball wasn’t able to hang on in the Big Ten Conference final and fell to crosstown rival UCLA 72-67. With the NCAA Tournament on the horizon, the loss is particularly sobering for the Trojans, who are hoping for optimal seeding moving forward.
USC is definitively among the best in the nation, but the team’s performance in the Big Ten Tournament may have created more doubt than clarity around what the Trojans’ path through the NCAA Tournament will look like.
Slow starts plagued USC both earlier this weekend and throughout the season. The team didn’t seal the quarterfinal game against Indiana until the final minutes, and needed a 14-0 run in the fourth to put Michigan away in the semifinal. Sunday’s matchup was different, as sophomore guard JuJu Watkins led USC on a 9-0 run in the middle of the first to give the team a 14-11 lead.
The Bruins were competitive in the first but couldn’t draw level. They clawed it back to a one point deficit at 36-35, but USC rattled off a quick 9-0 run to end the half with a 10 point lead. Sophomore guard Malia Samuels and freshman guard Avery Howell were instrumental to the Trojans’ first half effort, making big plays from behind the arc and in transition. Watkins continued her stellar season against UCLA with 18 points and five rebounds in the half.
USC staved off the Bruins for most of the third quarter, but UCLA put together a 21-6 run to retake the lead 56-54 early in the fourth. A nearly three-minute scoring drought from the Trojans saw the Bruins go up by six. USC didn’t score its first field goal of the final quarter until Watkins sank one from midrange with 1:13 remaining. She finished with 29 and six rebounds. Graduate forward Kiki Iriafen was the only other Trojan to score in double digits with 10.
“It felt like every time we missed an open look, they came down and capitalized on it,” graduate guard Talia von Oelhoffen said. “I think we just need to do better navigating on the shooting struggles and figure out how to get to the rim and get to the line.”
The Trojans have already shown that they can beat the Bruins. They handed UCLA its first loss of the season in a 71-60 battle back on February 13, the team’s first win over an AP top-ranked team since 1983. USC also secured an 80-67 win over the Bruins just last weekend in Westwood, stifling star junior center Lauren Betts in the process.
A win against USC certainly moves the needle for the Bruins, whose only losses of the season have come at the Trojans’ hands. But USC’s play today doesn’t really tell us anything we don’t already know. Watkins is an offensive powerhouse and the team’s rivalry with UCLA is highly competitive, per usual. At this point, only high profile wins in the NCAA Tournament can truly elevate USC’s season.
In addition to the slow starts against non-rival teams, turnovers have also been a consistent problem for USC against ranked teams this season. The Trojans gave the ball away 14.8 times per game this season, and against ranked opponents that aren’t UCLA, that number rises to 20.6. That includes 21 turnovers against Notre Dame (in USC’s sole home loss of the season) and a whopping 27 against Ole Miss in Paris. USC also committed 18 giveaways in a close 72-70 win at UConn, the team that knocked the Trojans out in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last year.
Offensive inconsistency was also a problem in that game, wherein USC made a late run but ultimately fell 80-73 to the Huskies. The team’s inexperience shone through in late March despite taking the crown in the final Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament.
In the time since, the Trojans have flipped most of their roster, losing six graduates and picking up grad transfers Iriafen and von Oelhoffen to accompany their stacked freshman class. They’re a younger team from last season and have grown sturdier defensively. That defensive prowess was on display in Sunday’s championship game, as the Trojans’ active hands resulted in 12 steals. Increased defensive intensity will likely be key for USC moving forward.
Another bright spot for USC is its bench. Samuels and Howell especially showcased their tenacity on both sides of the floor throughout the Tournament. Plus, the Trojans have shown a scrappy side, crushing UCLA on the offensive boards 21-4. Despite the loss, USC has a lot of positives to bring into the NCAA Tournament.
“The two losses that we’ve had prior to this, I thought our team responded and really bounced forward, and that’s what we’ll do heading into the NCAA Tournament,” USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “My guess is this is going to make us even better, and that half of basketball will be out of us. We’ll look forward that way.”
When USC won its two national championships in 1983 and 1984 behind two-time tournament MVP Cheryl Miller, women’s sports were new to the NCAA. It was largely because of Title IX that women began accruing athletic scholarships in the mid-1970s. Those early days of NCAA women’s basketball looked very different from what we’re used to today.
We’ve seen women’s hoops evolve a lot over the 40-odd years since those Trojan titles, and right now we’re in a period of rapid growth. Amazingly, that growth has spread across the nation, with elite players coming from programs at UConn, South Carolina, Texas and the like. As these two LA rivals rise and continue developing their young talent, the question remains – how do teams break through to the next level in this hypercompetitive women’s basketball environment?
“It’s not like we shy away from competition,” Watkins said. “We’re always grateful to play [UCLA] because they push us and we push them... Our coach has prepared us. We struggled in the second half.”
Their performance in the Big Ten Tournament shows us that the Trojans can fight through some adversity within the conference, but it remains to be seen if that will carry into the next stage. With the NCAA Tournament approaching, the Trojans will have to minimize offensive mistakes if they hope to remain competitive with other top teams. USC’s bench was a major factor in its early success this weekend and could provide some offensive relief for the team’s stars.
Earlier in the weekend, Gottlieb alluded to the idea that her team won’t get any bonus points for winning the conference, but that they can learn from their success this season. The Trojans will have to learn a lot from today’s loss as they hope to advance further in the Tournament than they have in a long time.