USC women’s basketball loses to Utah, snapping 7-game winning streak
The USC women’s basketball team had won seven games in a row entering Sunday’s regular-season home finale in the Galen Center against Utah. The Trojans had hoped to continue their winning ways, knowing that if they got through this game, they would play two teams outside the top five in the Pac-12 over the next week. Utah is a top-25 team which was a No. 2 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament. The Utes are really good, and a lot better than the Arizona and Arizona State teams USC will face later this week. Beating Utah would have given USC a path to a possible Pac-12 championship and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Alas, a loss. USC took a big hit with a 74-68 defeat. Let’s hit the main points of this result:
JUJU HIT-OR-MISS
Friday, JuJu Watkins torched Colorado for 42 points on 10-of-19 shooting with 18 of 18 makes at the free throw line. She was superb. Against Utah, Watkins scored 30 points but at the expense of 30 shots. She made just 10 of the 30 shots and missed three of her 12 free throws. Watkins was 6 of 32 against Oregon State one week ago. She can light up opponents, but she can also struggle. She has been hit-or-miss in recent weeks. USC has to find ways to get her to be more consistent.
3-POINT SHOOTING
Utah hit 11 of 27 3-pointers, USC just 4 of 20. You can look at various components of this game, but it mostly came down to Utah shooting at a much higher level than USC. If USC had made 7 of 20 3-pointers instead of only four, that’s nine more points. USC lost by six. Notable: 7 of 20 is just 35 percent — nothing special, but not terrible. A 4-of-20 clip is 20 percent.
EFFORT WAS GOOD
There was nothing wrong with USC’s effort. Utah made a lot of tough shots. Beyond that, USC forced 16 Utah turnovers and was plus-9 in offensive rebounds, 13-4. Energy was good. USC fought hard. Shooting was the decider.
FORBES AND PADILLA
McKenzie Forbes and Kayla Padilla helped JuJu Watkins against Colorado, going 11 of 19 combined from the field. On Sunday versus Utah: 5 of 17.
PAC-12 TITLE HOPES GONE
USC had a real shot to share the Pac-12 championship. Now that dream is basically done. The Trojans are once again two games behind Stanford, which beat Arizona State. Stanford could lose to Oregon State and still win the outright Pac-12 title by beating last-place Oregon next weekend. So much for that.
NO. 1 SEED IN NCAA TOURNAMENT
This goal can still be attained, but now USC has zero margin for error. The Trojans must win their next two games versus the Arizona schools and then win the Pac-12 Tournament. Nothing less than that is needed to get a top seed.
