No. 21 USC women moving forward from rivalry game ‘disappointment’ and on to Oregon
Disappointment and embarrassment. Two words that USC women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Gottlieb used to describe how her team felt after losing 80-46 to No. 4 UCLA on Saturday in the first of two regular-season games between the crosstown rivals.
“But we own it,” Gottlieb told reporters after the game. “We get a lot of basketball to achieve our goals and we’ll get back to work and take it on the chin. We’ve had great wins and celebrations here and tough losses. And all we can do is just handle it and get better. And that’s what our team’s looking forward to doing.”
The Trojans dropped four spots in the Associated Press rankings to No. 21 after the loss, but can quickly begin to turn the page after the defeat. They’ll host Oregon (13-3 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
It’s part of a brief break of non-ranked opponents before USC (10-4, 2-1) hosts No. 8 Maryland on Jan. 15. In addition to playing the Ducks on Tuesday, they’ll also play unranked Minnesota on the road on Sunday.
USC has already played three out of the four top teams in the country in No. 1 UConn, No. 3 South Carolina and, most recently, UCLA.
“We’re trying to be the national champions,” Gottlieb told reporters. “We’re trying to be the best program in the country, so I’m not sorry we scheduled them all. You’ve gotta learn where we had big strides and where we haven’t. And we’ve fallen short in those games.”
Oregon achieved a bounce-back win and its first win of the Big Ten Conference season when it beat Northwestern 87-54 on Thursday. The Ducks are also battle-tested and played No. 6 Michigan and UCLA in their first conference games of the season.
They lost to the Wolverines 92-87 on Dec. 29 and to UCLA 80-59 on Dec. 7
The Northwestern win was a well-rounded offensive performance that saw 10 different players contribute points. Five-foot-11 sophomore guard Katie Fiso led her team with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 6-foot-2 Australian forward Mia Jacobs had 16 points and six rebounds.
“We’re keying in on those little details but also just worrying about ourselves,” Fiso told reporters after the game. “It’s just a bunch of other people with a jersey on. And once we focus on ourselves, then we can be the best version of ourselves. It’s us vs. anyone, really.”
Oregon had 33 rebounds as a team in the game, and 23 of them were defensive. The Ducks also had 13 steals and are tied for second in the conference in that category with 12.8 steals a game.
USC struggled in the post against UCLA and shot 27% from the field while grabbing a season-low 26 rebounds on Saturday night.
Some positives, however, included the 17 turnovers that the Trojans forced and freshman Jazzy Davidson’s 11th straight game of scoring in double figures. The 6-foot-1 guard continues to carry a heavy load at 32.6 minutes per game in her first season of college basketball.
She has support from 6-foot-1 sophomore guard Kennedy Smith, who is averaging 10.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists.
“They pretty much are the core of how they attack,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said after Saturday’s game.
“Kennedy is an elite passer and she is their best defender. Jazzy has been one of the most impactful freshmen in the country. They’ve done a really good job fighting to find different ways to score and use them in creative ways.”
OREGON (13-3 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) at No. 21 USC (10-4, 2-1)
When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Where: Galen Center
TV/Radio: Big Ten Network/USCTrojans.com/listen