Destiny Littleton and Rayah Marshall are USC’s best defensive players and the two ultimate workhorses on this team. They will play nearly every minute, make the biggest defensive contributions, and will normally leave the biggest statistical imprint on any game USC plays. Kadi Sissoko is one of USC’s best scorers, the player the Trojans look to when Littleton and Marshall don’t have the ball.
Friday night, Littleton did what she normally does, scoring 18 points and playing typically great defense, but the Marshall-Sissoko combination wasn’t at its best. Those two players combined to make just 5 of 28 shots. USC held Oregon to 51 points, but the Trojans scored just eight points in the first quarter and trailed by as many as 14 points midway through the second quarter.
They were going to need offense from another non-Littleton source if they were going to win.
Enter Okako Adika.
The senior, who was born in Denmark, delivered one of her best games of the season at a very important time. She scored 18 points and hauled in 11 rebounds. She made more than one-third of USC’s 19 total field goals. She held this team together when her teammates struggled to score.
On Sunday against Arizona, Rokia Doumbia was the role player who gave USC’s offense an unexpected boost. On Friday, Adika stepped forward. USC’s role-player contributions will take the heat off Littleton, Marshall, and Sissoko, giving the Trojans more depth and balance. This is exactly what the Women of Troy need heading into March.
Because of this performance from Adika, USC’s odds of playing big games in March just improved.
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