The USC women’s basketball team played a Big Ten game in a longtime Pac-12 location. USC-Oregon should be a Pac-12 game, but this is the new world we live in. The Trojans felt very much at home in Eugene on Saturday afternoon. So did the players who transferred to USC in the offseason and were familiar with the Ducks.
Kiki Iriafen, the transfer from Stanford, scored 17 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. Talia von Oelhoffen, the transfer from Oregon State, scored 11 points and hit three 3-pointers to help JuJu Watkins, who led the Trojans with 21 points. All three players — and the rest of the Trojans — made their biggest contributions at the defensive end of the floor. USC held Oregon to just six points in the second quarter, outscoring the Ducks 28-6 in that 10-minute stretch to blow the game open before halftime. USC held Oregon to 13 or fewer points in three of the game’s four quarters and cruised to a 66-53 win on the road.
USC reaffirmed the best part of its identity: Its defense is always good. It was good in the narrow win over Ole Miss in France. It was good against Notre Dame. As long as USC’s offense doesn’t collapse, the Trojans will be tough to beat in any game they play.
Oregon finished 3 of 20 on 3-point shots. The Ducks committed 16 turnovers and earned only eight free throw attempts. Oregon finished just under 36 percent shooting from the field for the game. This was a complete defensive showing by USC, which took an important step forward this season.