LOS ANGELES — It grew impossible to conceal her body language, the sheer frustration radiating off of JuJu Watkins as the clock ticked toward the halftime buzzer. She smacked her hands together, walking back on defense. She held her hands up in a sort of self-prayer, walking back up on offense. She muttered at herself.
Yet another baseline jumper clanked off the iron, a few seconds before the half, and Watkins exited the court shaking her head and despondently tapping her teammates’ hands. Her shoulders drooped, under the weight of a near-incomprehensible start. This was, simply, an out-of-body experience. Not the good kind.
The best scorer – arguably – in women’s college basketball played one of the worst halves of her career Thursday night. She shot 0 for 10 in the first 20 minutes. She finished the night with 20 points, shooting 7 for 24 from the field.
Fourth-ranked USC (19-1 overall, 9-0 Big Ten) still beat Minnesota (18-4, 6-4) by 13 points in an 82-69 win.
It was a showcase of the powerhouse head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has built in Year Four, and the upside of her program looking toward March, a slew of offensive options carrying USC in the first half and giving way to Watkins in the second. Star big Kiki Iriafen had one of her best games in a Trojans uniform, dropping in 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting with 11 rebounds. Freshman Avery Howell hit four 3-pointers, and senior Talia Von Oelhoffen added six assists.
“We talk a lot about roles, and whose role is what – so, trying to play into your role, but also be you, and be confident in what you do,” Von Oelhoffen said Tuesday. “I think a lot of people are starting to come into their own in that way.”
On the surface, this USC powerhouse has had no problems for two months other than a few long road trips and some cold weather, undefeated since a Nov. 23 loss to Notre Dame. The Trojans have steamrolled solid conference opponents. They beat Purdue last Wednesday, in Indiana, by 42 points. But behind the scenes, each week has brought the internal challenge, for Gottlieb and company, of how to fine-tune the finer points of an offense that at times has seemingly too many weapons next to Watkins.
A group of talented freshmen have tried to fit rotational roles as floor-spacers and tertiary options. Iriafen has worked for months to understand how to find her spots in the free-flow of Gottlieb’s USC offense. And senior Talia Von Oelhoffen had visibly struggled with her shot for months, shooting just 14.6% from 3-point range since Dec. 7.
The reason for Von Oelhoffen’s inconsistency — and the reason for all of it, really – was the sheer mental adjustment to an offensive overflow of talent.
“I think I’m more open than I’ve ever been in my career,” the former Oregon State guard recalled Tuesday. “And I think that’s kind of gotten to me, because I’ve always been face-guarded or hugged up on. Now, I’m standing there wide open, so I just got to step up and knock it down.”
She stepped up just fine Thursday, burying a couple of first-quarter 3-pointers to snap a slump and give USC a lift as Watkins struggled early. And USC showed the full teeth of its roster from tipoff to buzzer, a wealth of complementary options finding a collective flow-state that bodes plenty well come national championship aspirations in March.
Backup guard Malia Samuels had a momentum swinging steal-into-3-pointer to give USC a 34-21 lead in the second quarter. Freshman Kayleigh Heckel, attacking the rim with fitting confidence for someone with the nickname “K9,” finished a three-point play to extend the lead to 20 points with the third quarter waning. And no one stood out more than Iriafen.
In early January, carrying enough on-floor angst about her offensive role that it became visible to Gottlieb, USC’s star forward sat with her head coach for a check-in conversation that Iriafen’s former Harvard-Westlake coach Melissa Hearlihy said “made her more comfortable on the floor.” And Iriafen attacked Minnesota’s defense with the confidence of a number-one option all night Thursday, looking increasingly settled in operating from a variety of spots on the floor in USC’s free-flowing offense.
She stepped behind the arc – which Gottlieb has been encouraging her to do – for back-to-back 32-pointers in the first quarter. She attacked the first-half glass with abandon. And as Minnesota center Sophie Hart attacked USC’s defense in center Rayah Marshall’s absence, the Golden Gophers star finishing with 18 points as Marshall was scratched with a day-to-day injury, Iriafen went bucket-for-bucket with her in the third quarter to buoy a USC run.
And Watkins was nothing if not relentless in the fourth quarter. Her shot, largely, was completely thrown. Her face snarled with visible self-disgust. But she attacked double- and triple-teams to the tune of 20 second-half points, and USC put another quality Big Ten opponent away.
More to come on this story.