McKenzie Forbes scores 36 as No. 6 USC holds on to defeat Long Beach State
Even when McKenzie Forbes was a freshman at California, Lindsay Gottlieb knew the McDonald’s All-American guard was a gamer. The USC coach had been waiting for a performance like this.
Forbes battled through the flu to score a career-best 36 points and help No. 6 USC survive Long Beach State’s upset bid 85-77 on Thursday at Walter Pyramid. With her team short-handed without three starters, including two also suffering from illness, Forbes barely practiced this week, skipped shootaround Thursday, then helped USC seal a perfect nonconference record while flashing her all-around game with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals.
“Kenzie had her flu game that I’m never going to forget my whole life,” Gottlieb said. “What a warrior.”
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The Trojans (10-0) were without star freshman JuJu Watkins and All-Pac-12 forward Rayah Marshall, who both missed the game with an illness. Behind Forbes’ career performance, Kayla Padilla scored 16 points with four made three-pointers, four assists and three steals, and Taylor Bigby scored 11 with four assists and two blocks to help USC win its 12th straight against Long Beach State.
Now the real fun starts.
With No. 2 UCLA routing Hawaii 85-46 at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday, the crosstown rivals are set up for a titanic clash on Dec. 30. The conference-opening matchup at Pauley Pavilion will be the first time UCLA (11-0) and USC have met as two top-10 teams since 1981 and the first time they’ve both been undefeated.
“There’s nothing ever been like this. How cool is that?” Gottlieb said of the upcoming rivalry game. “To have the rivalry game, the proximity be so close and both teams to be so good and so exciting is just really good for women’s basketball.”
While the Bruins coasted through their nonconference finale, the Trojans had to dig deep into their bench. Along with Watkins — the nation’s second-leading scorer — and Marshall, the Trojans were without forward Kaitlin Davis, who missed her second consecutive game with an undisclosed injury. All three starters are day to day.
Forbes, a transfer from Harvard, was a game-time decision. She hadn’t seen Padilla, her roommate, for the last three days as Padilla just dropped Gatorade off outside of their door. She sat out of shootaround, then as Long Beach State (5-5) cut the deficit to four late in the third quarter, she was the primary voice helping the Trojans refocus and push the lead back to 10 on the opening possession of the fourth when she hit a critical three-pointer.
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“Just a huge credit to this group,” Forbes said. “We came out and got it done, missing a lot of big pieces.”
Without Marshall and Davis, a 6-2 forward, the Trojans were outrebounded 49-39 and outscored 46-20 in the paint. Long Beach State had four double-digit scorers, led by 17 from Savannah Tucker. The Beach’s 77 points were the most allowed by USC this season. But the Trojans forced 22 turnovers, led by four steals from guard Kayla Williams, and made 31 of 39 free throws, including 12 from Forbes.
“We knew we were going to give up something and somebody was going to take Watkins’ shots, you just didn’t know where,” Long Beach State first-year coach Amy Wright said. “Do I feel like the performance by Forbes lost us the game? No. Did she have an amazing performance? Absolutely. Give credit to USC, they’re a great team for a reason.”
As Forbes sank two final free throws with 1.9 seconds remaining, a USC fan seated behind the team’s bench was already thinking ahead.
“Beat the Bruins!” he shouted.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
