Los Angeles, CA- USC stood on their word after losing to their crosstown rival almost two months ago on UCLA’s home floor, Pauley Pavilion that it would be a “different game on March 1st” which despite a change of venue to the Galen Center and a different game plan that caused somewhat of an impact on the Lady Bruins primary two stars, Lauren Betts and KiKi Rice, the results stayed the same with the Women of Troy defeated, 73-50.
“We knew it was going to be different tonight. We knew that they were going to come out with a fire and we knew that we had to do it with our defense, and I think that’s the thing that covered for us,” UCLA Head Coach Cori Close said.
USC had an unfathomable upset to pull off against the No. 2 team in the country whom came in undefeated in their league while Women of Troy entered today’s home game off a two-game losing streak on the road. Coach Lindsay spoke about their prior game being a “bad loss.”
“I’ve said it all year, like there’s a couple teams that are really elite, and then there’s a whole bunch of other teams that are kind of not in that group, but they’re in another group of like looks at what’s going on—anyone can beat anyone,” Gottlieb said. “Last weekend was our first bad loss, but we want to feel like we can beat anyone at any time and that’s what I think, this team is capable of, we’ve never made one single excuse…And I think we’re growing and building things that are going to be everlasting.”
Still the Women of Troy have found a way throughout this season to find the silver lining in spite of losing close games, a few blowouts by top ranked opponents, their previous top scorer out all season, and now indisputable bragging rights of being the best west coast women’s college basketball team this season.
“We’ve got the national player of the year, the best player in college basketball sitting down and lining up chairs in the locker room before every game and helping build our culture…,” Gottlieb said. “We have a program. We have a culture. I’ve never mentioned that all year, right? Because Juju is not playing. But what we’ve trying to build here and what we’ve built goes beyond one good season or two good seasons. I think it’s going to be you know what this era is about for a very long time.”
UCLA did not take USC lightly or their crowd for granted in spite of their record and current losing streak. Instead, they utilized their depth causing USC trouble most of the first half before the half ended, 38-20 after only being up eight in the first quarter, 19-11.
“Love this rivalry. Love coming to play SC over here…And I love what it does for the city and does for the fans,” UCLA Senior Guard Gabriela Jaquez said. “I think that’s what makes it super fun and people are super passionate and super excited to come out and watch. I know it brings a lot of people together and so that’s just what I really like about it and it’s been definitely super fun all my four years playing against them and getting more competitive the last two years against them… and shout out to Londynn for being a senior graduating like super proud of her and I just think it’s nice that they honor the seniors and we do the same when people play us on senior night.”
USC began the game with a few turnovers and loose balls appearing to be somewhat nervous and mounting pressure of playing in March as their defense unraveled from initial success of defending the post while their offense took a while to unfold before Kennedy Smith knocked down a couple of tough long mid-range jumpers.
Throughout the game, the Women of Troy appeared outsized and overwhelm as the Lady Bruins upheld their depth advantage on the boards including 22 offensive rebounds to USC’s five.
“They’re extremely athletic. I think they have proven they’re an elite defensive team and so they made us sort of speed up and sometimes when we started to get downhill our vision wasn’t as good and sometimes, we missed catches with Lauren,” Close said. “The reality is Lauren had 15 rebounds, five assists, and zero turnovers, which she had five turnovers, I think four or five went up at our place. So, like there’s a lot of ways to impact the game. And Kiki Rice is so her leadership, her steadiness, she had four assists, two turnovers…, but you know there’s just lots of ways to impact winning and it doesn’t always show up in points. And I am so proud of Lauren…. Lauren’s defense, her in the pick and roll in the middle.”
Another key advantage UCLA (29-1, 18-0) had was behind the three-point line, which the Lady Bruins knocked down nine to USC’s three.
Coming off a 6-of-9 three pointers game, freshmen Jazzy Davidson went 0-4 from deep and 4-12 from the field for a total of 12 points. USC’s other consistent scorer and Senior Transfer forward, Kara Dunn celebrated Senior Day alongside Senior Transfer and former Bruin Londynn Jones with eight and six points, respectively.
“I thought our effort was good, right? Like I thought we were in the fight,” Gottlieb said. ”UCLA is a really good team and you
know they’re having a great year. I think, you know, we’ve proven to ourselves that we can fight for one another and we really wanted to keep them from scoring points in our paint, and obviously that begins with Lauren Betts and I thought we swarmed her and I thought we tried to get it out of her hands…Kennedy’s one-on-one defense on Kiki was tremendous, but they’re a good team and other people scored.”
The Women of Troy did not let Star Senior Center Betts drop another double-double like in their previous matchup. Charlisse Ledger-Walker led the Bruins with 20 points while Rice added 11 points.
USC (17-12,9-9) finishes regular season conference play even in wins and losses column, losing an opportunity to be a host team for the conference tournament. Both teams will look to begin preparing for March madness with a strong conference tournament performance.
