USC women’s basketball gets the low-stress win it needed vs Arizona State
The USC Trojans needed a low-stress basketball game on Friday against Arizona State. Facing the last-place team in the Pac-12, the Trojans were playing the one opponent any high-end team should be able to demolish without too much trouble.
It is a fact of life and sports that not every day will be met with the same intensity. Coaches can (and should) try to preach about consistency and good habits, but it’s still a simple reality that top-end games and lower-tier games won’t generate the same level of enthusiasm. Coaches do understand that there are times during a long season when athletes will conserve energy and need to be paced instead of being run into the ground. You did see USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb run a lot of players in and out of the lineup versus ASU on Friday, an acknowledgment that this team did need to step off the gas pedal. The Trojans were playing an opponent against which they could afford to breathe a little.
Let’s go inside the central details of this 81-63 win, as the Trojans moved to 17-4 on the season and stayed on track to reach the central goal of hosting NCAA Tournament games at the Galen Center:
EMPTY THE BENCH
Lindsay Gottlieb has to be very pleased about her bench usage in this game against Arizona State. A total of 12 players played. Of those 12, 11 played at least seven minutes. USC used 59 bench minutes. That’s a lot of accumulated rest for the starting five. JuJu Watkins was the only starter who played more than 30 minutes. Getting rest for Kaitlyn Davis, Rayah Marshall, Kayla Padilla, and McKenzie Forbes should refill the fuel tank heading into the second half of February and beyond. That’s valuable for the whole team.
JUJU WATKINS GETS HELP
JuJu Watkins got plenty of help. Rayah Marshall looks a lot more like the elite frontcourt force she has been for USC. She scored 13 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, and blocked 3 shots. That’s the player USC needs in March.
McKenzie Forbes struggled to shoot the ball on the Bay Area road trip one week ago. Friday, she hit 7 of 14 shots and scored 18 big points. Forbes being the 1-B scorer to JuJu’s 1-A is such a crucial, central need for this USC team.
Kaitlyn Davis continues to produce. She had 8 points and 6 boards against ASU. Getting that from Davis nightly would be very good for USC.
RELAXATION
JuJu Watkins and the whole USC team pushed themselves very hard at Stanford and Cal one week ago. They had to work really hard in the loss to Washington, too. This team needed a game which was put to bed with five minutes left in regulation. Done. Not every game needs to come down to the final minutes.
BALL SECURITY
USC committed only eight turnovers. JuJu, who has had several five- or six-turnover games this season, committed only two against ASU. If USC can hit those marks (team and JuJu) on a regular basis, this team will be very hard to beat in March.
EFFICIENT OFFENSE
USC hit 31 of 68 shots, over 45 percent. We have noted that if USC can hit in the low-to-mid 40s instead of shooting 35 percent — as it has done a few times this season — the Trojans will make life a lot easier for themselves.
SEED WATCH
USC entered Friday as a projected No. 3 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. If the Trojans get a top-four seed, they will host opening-round games at the Galen Center. This win keeps USC on track for that top-four seed. As long as the Trojans don’t eat another loss to a lower-tier Pac-12 team, and they pick off at least one more high-end win, they should be good.
