Los Angeles, CA – The No 4. USC Trojan women’s basketball team kicked off 2025 with a 75-55 victory over the visiting Nebraska Cornhuskers on New Year’s Day. Sophomore guard Juju Watkins led the Trojans in scoring with 26 points and four assists to help them advance to 3-0 in Big Ten play and 13-1 overall.
Nebraska and USC were evenly matched throughout the first two quarters, with Nebraska
holding a slight lead in the second. Southern California responded with a 10-0 run to close out the first half and take a narrow 39-35 lead into halftime. The Cornhuskers shot 46% from the field and went 3-5 from long distance for 60% in the first half. USC shot 48% and 3-9 from behind the arc for 33% in the first two periods of play.
The Women of Troy turned up the defensive pressure in the second half holding Nebraska to 23% shooting from the field and only allowing them to score 7 of 30 field goals. Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb spoke about the defensive adjustments that were made at halftime, “We just really challenged our players to play with more toughness and aggressiveness. They’re a good team and if you’re um sort of uh passive at all they’re going to make you pay so we made a point to try not to let them get anything easy and we communicated better in the second half too.”
USC’s defense forced 18 Cornhusker turnovers which the Trojans turned into 25 points. USC shot 40% from the field in the second half going 11-27 from the floor. The Trojans also dominated inside the paint finishing the contest with a 42-18 advantage.
Kiki Iriafen was the second leading scoring for the Trojans contributing 14 points and grabbing 6 rebounds.
Logan Nissley led Nebraska with 14 points finishing 4-5 from three-point range. USC now prepares to go on a road trip to face Rutgers next weekend in a tough conference matchup and also a top-10 showdown with the No. 8 Maryland Terrapins, who currently sit at 12-0.
Coach Gottlieb spoke on what the team needs to do to be locked in for their upcoming road trip. “Just lock in on what makes us great and try to sustain that for 40 minutes we’re never going to be perfect, nobody’s perfect but you need to pack with you on a road trip a kind of tenacity and togetherness that no one can take away. We know this is a big road trip also it’s two really talented teams and we’ll get the team as ready as possible and I think we’ll be up for the challenges”.
