Women’s basketball splits weekend games

It was a mixed weekend for the Women of Troy. After falling 57-47 to a high-ranked Stanford squad, the team rebounded with a powerful second-half performance for a 61-47 victory over Cal.

The Women of Troy opened the weekend with one of their hardest matchups of the season against No. 12 Stanford. Despite starting the game with a 4-point lead, USC suffered from a six-minute cold streak while Stanford stretched out the lead. Forcing a total of 19 turnovers helped the Trojans to stay in the game, but they were unable to battle back and fell 57-47 in their third straight loss.

The true difference in the game was shooting. Stanford’s squad ended the game 46 percent from the field, while USC came in at 31 percent. The Women of Troy were able to chip down the Stanford lead to less than two points several times, but they were never able to take back control of the offensive tempo. Head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke attributed the team’s offensive struggles partially to confidence.

“It didn’t feel like we ever really believed that we could beat Stanford,” Cooper-Dyke said. “And that confidence is what you need to really get over that hump and take a lead and win a game against a team like [Stanford]. We learned that we can compete, but we also learned that we really need to find that confidence.”

Another factor in the team’s performance over the weekend was a loss of two critical players. The team was missing two starters for the second weekend in a row, with junior Jordan Adams and senior Brianna Barrett sidelined for eligibility issues. Adams and Barrett filled critical slots in the point guard role, and Adams added 13 points in the victory over UCLA, the last game she played.

One of the players stepping up in Adams and Barrett’s absence has been transfer post Temi Fagbenle, who led the team in both points and rebounds. Notching a total of 27 points over two games, Fagbenle hit double figures for the fifth game in a row in the loss to Stanford. Fagbenle’s contribution to the team has strengthened the post and cemented the team in the absence of key players.

“It’s been a difficult transition, especially with trying to find our chemistry and our new leaders,” Cooper-Dyke said. “We miss their defense, their offense, their leadership. We miss them as teammates. But in this situation, players have to step up and we have to make that adjustment.”

The adjustment began to show in the team’s Sunday matchup against Cal. The first half was slow for both offenses, with the Women of Troy shooting barely shooting 31 percent and scoring 26 points. In the second half, the team took off. Led by Fagbenle and sophomore guard Sadie Edwards, the Trojans exploded on offense, with the team’s shooting percentage climbing to 54 percent.

“We started to have more confidence in the second half,” Cooper-Dyke said. “We started to believe we could actually compete. I felt like the first two quarters, we were trying to figure out who we wanted to be, how we wanted to play. And the second half, we just competed and executed.”

Defense was the key difference in the team’s second-half play. Holding Cal to only six points in the fourth quarter, USC capitalized on offensive mistakes and converted 18 points off of turnovers. An increased defensive energy gave the team a taste of what their gameplay is going to look moving forward.

“We’re still, as a team, trying to find our identity of who we will be this season,” Cooper-Dyke said. “We have to continue to grow and really identify what this new USC Women of Troy look like.”