The No. 6 USC Women of Troy basketball team has been battle-tested and has reached accomplishments in the month of November.
USC recently defeated Seton Hall and Saint Louis to become the Women’s Acrisure Holiday Invitational champions. In their 104-65 victory over Saint Louis, sophomore guard JuJu Watkins scored 34 points and grad student forward Kiki Iriafen poured in 30 points.
USC women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb noted how she had to demonstrate to her players how to beat the zone defense the Saint Louis Billikens implemented.
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“We haven’t faced a ton of zone, so there were some technical adjustments there,” Gottlieb said. “Just the level of intensity and to be consistent with how we want to be and how we want to play.”
Iriafen scores 18.4 points per game while Watkins makes 23.4 points per game. This helped the Women of Troy to a 6-1 overall record. Two of their seven matchups have been against nationally ranked teams, going 1-1 against them. Gottlieb sees the benefits of being challenged early.
“The best thing for us is that we faced a little adversity,” Gottlieb said. “Sometimes you are forced to get uncomfortable sooner and we know the strength that we have up and down the roster.”
Their only loss as of November 30 was against the third-ranked Notre Dame 61-74. The Women of Troy struggled to contain the shifty quickness of Notre Dame guards Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles. The duo combined for 44 points and kept USC trailing throughout the matchup.
USC struggled to score early against the Fighting Irish, going 5-16 from the field and 0-4 from deep.
“I thought we let them get going in transition,” Gottlieb said after the loss. “We clawed and fought our way back, even though I never felt like we were really clicking in that first half.”
The USC vs Notre Dame match-up brought out several celebrities, including Snoop Dogg, Candace Parker, Michael B. Jordan, Cheryl Miller, and Dearica Hamby. The Women of Troy were missing the talents of freshman guard Kennedy Smith, who recently had a surgical procedure.
Smith helped USC defeat no. 20 Ole Miss 68-66 in their season opener; she contributed 12 points, eight rebounds, two assists and one block.
“[Smith] has been incredibly important to us,” Gottlieb said. “She’s the best incoming freshman defensively that I’ve had in my career and she is a big part of the things that we do.”
In December, the Women of Troy will face Big Ten opponents Oregon and Michigan. They will also battle the former women’s basketball dynasty UConn. Their first game in December is against California Baptist on Tuesday at 6:30PM.
