USC women face a Purdue team with momentum

The USC women’s basketball team will face a Purdue team that is quickly gaining momentum on Sunday afternoon.

Shutting down the Boilermakers would end a four-game slide, and give the Trojans an edge in the Big Ten standings. The Trojans and Boilermakers are both 2-4 in conference play.

Purdue (10-7 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) lost its first four games of Big Ten play but beat Wisconsin on the road and then took down Washington, which was ranked No. 23 at the time, in overtime.

“I sent them a text the other night,” Purdue coach Katie Geralds told reporters after the Washington win. “I said, ‘We’re so close. I’m just sick and tired of being close.’ And our group has stayed with it. They haven’t quit.”

Exactly one week after that win, the Boilermakers are out west for a 2 p.m. tipoff against the Trojans (10-7, 2-4), who are moving forward in their own way.

As if losing star player JuJu Watkins to injury wasn’t detrimental enough, starting guard and major all-around contributor Kennedy Smith has missed the last three games due to a lower leg injury.

Smith was averaging 10.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.8 steals prior to her absence.

Five-foot-11 senior guard Kara Dunn has arguably stepped up more than any other player in the last three games and has scored over 20 points in all of them. Prior to that, she had surpassed 20 points just once in the Trojans’ Nov. 21 game at Notre Dame.

“With Kennedy out, the whole team needed to step up in a lot of areas because she’s such a versatile player,” Dunn told reporters. “I’ve been in scoring positions on the other teams as well. I’m just stepping up and being the player that I can be. And knowing that Coach Lindsay trusts me for that and my team trusts me for that, I’ve enjoyed it.”

USC went toe-to-toe with No. 12 Maryland on Thursday night, and the Trojans trailed by just four points with 30 seconds remaining in the game before the Terrapins pulled away 62-55.

“We’re obviously playing without a really important piece for us,” head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “The growth of other people during this time is going to make us even better down the stretch. This one is hard. It hurts. It hurts more when you lay it on the line, and I thought our team laid it on the line.”

Purdue’s Madison Layden-Zay became the Boilermakers’ all-time leader in 3-pointers when she made her 244th triple in the fourth quarter of the Washington game. The 6-foot-1 guard has now made four or more three’s in 21 career games and is currently shooting 40.4 from long range.

Her record-breaking three was part of a 15-point scoring run that got Purdue into overtime against Washington.

Lana McCarthy’s double-double, as well as her defense, were also crucial to the win. The 6-foot-4 forward’s 14 points and 12 rebounds were the most she had since a Nov. 26 contest against Howard.

“The way she talked on the defensive end,” Geralds said, “calling out their chin cuts, calling out their Princeton motion, carrying things when our guards missed it and really clogging it up there, but then her ability to get back up and contain a ball screen as well as she could — she was elite.”

PURDUE (10-7, 2-4) at USC (10-7, 2-4)

When: Sunday, 2 p.m.

Where: Galen Center

TV/Radio: Big Ten+/ESPN LA 710