This is how it will be for USC women’s basketball in the Pac-12 this season. The Trojans will have very few easy games. Nearly every team in the conference is tough as nails. The elite teams will be hard to solve, and the middle-tier teams will be relentless and hungry. USC needs to settle in and realize every opponent will give the Trojans a battle.
Friday night against Oregon State was a perfect example. The Trojans were far from their best against a good team, but they prevailed in a 56-54 rockfight which dealt OSU its first loss of the season.
The Pac-12 has UCLA, USC, Colorado, and Stanford in the top 10 of the national rankings. Utah is at No. 12.
The conference is loaded — so loaded, in fact, that a 12-0 Oregon State team entered Friday night outside the top 15.
The Beavers were a difficult opponent for USC last season. The Trojans failed to score 70 points in all three outings against Oregon State. USC lost to the Beavers in the Pac-12 Tournament, scoring only 48 points.
Friday night, USC once again struggled against Oregon State’s defense. The Trojans managed only 56 points, shooting 32 percent from the field and earning only seven free throws. Rayah Marshall (3 of 10) and McKenzie Forbes (2 of 11) struggled from the field.
JuJu Watkins struggled as well, hitting only 33 percent of her shots, but even on a night when her shots weren’t falling, she scored half of USC’s 56 points. JuJu scored 28 because she took 33 shots, making 11. It wasn’t efficient, but Watkins did lead USC on a night when she suffered a leg cramp and missed a few minutes in the fourth quarter.
The player who saved USC against OSU was Kayla Padilla. The experienced transfer hit four 3-pointers in five attempts, giving the Trojans potency and efficiency in what was a largely inefficient game from both sides. Padilla’s clutch baskets in the fourth quarter set the scene for a dramatic final sequence in which Oregon State had chances to win or tie. In the final 10 seconds, OSU — down by two — missed a 3-pointer, then another jump shot, and then a follow-up attempt near the rim. Rayah Marshall blocked Raegan Beers’ close-in putback try just before the final horn to preserve the 56-54 win.
This is how it’s going to be for USC. The Trojans — who held Oregon State to 25-percent 3-point shooting and only 10 free throw attempts while forcing 14 Beaver turnovers — had to be at their best on defense in order to overcome their offensive limitations. The game bore a strong resemblance to what we saw for much of last season: stressful, but usually successful.
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