LOS ANGELES — Continued progress on Sunday did not come by way of victory.
It didn’t even come via stellar play.
It came by way of an old Purdue staple: Play hard.
Purdue women’s basketball, plagued by turnover woes and foul trouble in addition to an off shooting night, fell to USC 83-57, seemingly a step in the wrong direction after consecutive wins over Wisconsin and Washington.
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“I’ve been around some tough losses here and the final score might not indicate it, but I didn’t have a team out there that quit or gave up for a second and I’ll take that moving forward every day of the week,” coach Katie Gearlds said.
Gearlds hates moral victories as much as anyone.
She’s also realistic enough to know this isn’t an overnight transformation and every positive step brings the Boilermakers closer to where they aim to be, among the most relevant programs in women’s college basketball.
“Our women’s basketball program obviously has a tremendous tradition, tremendous history of success,” athletic director Mike Bobinski said during a Jan. 9 roundtable with local media. “That’s who we should be, and it will be for over the long haul, to me, wholly unacceptable for us to not be that program again.”
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The numbers don’t lie.
Purdue fell victim to a 19-4 run that carried over from the end of the first quarter early into the second.
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USC scored 30 points off 21 Purdue turnovers and had 40 points in the paint, helped by making 18 layups. That’s how you lose on the road in the Big Ten by 26 points.
“When you do things where you know you’re making a mistake, then that’s fixable,” said junior Tara Daye, who had 21 points, 10 rebounds and three steals vs. the Trojans. “I’m just glad we didn’t have to force each other to compete. I felt like we were competing the whole game.”
Purdue Redshirt Junior Tara Daye (44) drives the lane during the NCAA women’s basketball game between the Eastern Illinois Panthers at the Purdue Boilermakers, Thursday Nov. 6, 2025, at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind. Purdue won 82-67
Madison Layden-Zay and Kendall Puryear, averaging a combined 18 points per game coming in, totaled only a Puryear free throw. Lana McCarthy, Purdue’s rim protecting presence, played just eight minutes before fouling out.
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It could’ve, and maybe should’ve, been a lot worse.
But the Boilermakers outrebounded USC and got a third quarter spark from Kiki Smith.
Regression over the last two games does not equate to regression as a whole.
From a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) standpoint under the previous player-earning model, the Boilermakers were at a disadvantage with almost no financial help. The current NCAA revenue sharing model allowed Gearlds to put together a better roster.
It may also allow her to build stability with roster retention.
Because in the end, any progress the Boilermakers make over the next two-or-so months is nothing if a majority of the roster turns over again next season.
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“We’re a very new team, so our chemistry, so we’re just etting to know each other more,” Daye said. “We didn’t have that advantage. Other teams, they’ve been with each other for a year at least. We have a whole new roster. So we’re still trying to get there.”
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Tara Daye’s double-double not enough for Purdue women at USC
