Top-seeded Trojans fend off pesky Hoosiers to advance in Big Ten tourney
Between an onslaught of big second-half 3-pointers and a remarkable performance from the foul line, Indiana did everything it could to push the No. 2-ranked and top-seeded USC women’s basketball team in the Big Ten quarterfinals Friday.
But the Trojans pushed back even harder, responded each and every time they were challenged on the way to finishing off a highly-entertaining 84-79 win over the No. 9-seeded Hoosiers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Star JuJu Watkins poured in 31 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals and forward Kiki Iriafen came up big with 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Trojans (27-2) over the Hoosiers (19-12) and into a Big Ten semifinals matchup Saturday at 12 p.m. PT vs. the winner of No. 4 Maryland/No. 5 Michigan.
“Any win in March is a great win,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said on the Big Ten Network broadcast afterward. “… I thought our kids really displayed a ton of toughness. I thought as it has now for quite a while our bench was really, really important. And when you have two players like JuJu and Kiki that everyone else feeds off of, we’re in a good place. So I thought we did a lot of good things — a lot to improve as well.”
USC was without starting center and leading rebounder Rayah Marshall due to illness, but the Trojans’ supporting cast came up big as Avery Howell chipped in 10 points and 4 rebounds, Kennedy Smith added 9 points and 7 boards and Talia von Oelhoffen had 6 points and 5 assists — all of which felt momentous.
The Trojans could never rest easy in this one as Indiana made 25 of 27 free throws on the day and was 5 of 11 on 3-pointers in the second half to keep the pressure on the regular-season Big Ten champs.
“It was a gritty one,” Watkins said. “Indiana is a great team to play. They come out with a lot of energy, so it was only right that we matched that and even more.”
After leading 38-34 at halftime, USC saw that advantage erased early in the third quarter when Indiana reeled off 8 straight points, including 6 from Shay Ciezki, to take a 42-40 lead.
But as would be the story of the game, every time the Hoosiers challenged USC, the Trojans responded.
After trading the lead back and forth, von Oelhoffen hit the first of her two huge 3s to put USC up 48-46 midway through the third quarter.
The Trojans never trailed again, but they also couldn’t pull away until the very end either.
Yarden Garzon, who hit 5 of 10 3s on the way to a team-high 23 points for Indiana, knocked a 3 down at the end of the third quarter to keep it close at 59-57, made another 3 early in the fourth quarter to cut the USC lead to 62-60 and soon followed with a layup to keep it close at 64-62.
The Trojans gained some separation when Iriafen followed with a turnaround mid-range jumper — she was potent in the mid-range game all day — and Howell dropped in a fastbreak 3-pointer on a feed from Watkins for a 69-62 lead.
But Ciezki later hit a 3 for the Hoosiers, then blocked Watkins at the other end and Lilly Meister got to the line for Indiana for 2 free throws to cut the Trojans’ lead to 71-68 with 3:30 to play.
Right on cue, von Oelhoffen drained a 3 from the right wing to make it a 6-point lead, and after a miss on the other end Watkins hit a 3 as well to push it to 77-68 with 2:42 to play. The game never got closer than 4 points (in the final seconds) the rest of the way.
USC is vying for its second straight conference tournament championship after winning the Pac-12 tournament last year. The Trojans, who moved to No. 2 in the AP rankings this week for the first time since 1984, are also polishing off their resume for a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
For Watkins, the newly-minted Big Ten Player of the Year, this was her 21st-career 30-point game in just two seasons of play.
“It’s early in her career to talk about the overall greatness, but I think she has that sort of something you can’t really describe,” Gottlieb said. “You see the best athletes get to another level. … That inner something that makes her such a winner has been there from Day 1, and everyone else feeds off that and I think that’s something that’s really impressive.”
Watkins, meanwhile, talked about the Trojans having to play without Marshall, the steady 6-foot-4 senior who averages 7.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.
“Her presence was definitely missed,” Watkins said. “There were times when we were going a little back and forth with each other and Rayah is usually our peace, so we’ll miss her. But it’s just about coming back together, and we found a way to do that every time.”
