Women’s hoops defeats Virginia


Graduate transfer guard Stephanie Watts led the Trojans with 14 points and 12 rebounds Saturday against Virginia. (Yannick Peterhans / Daily Trojan)

The USC women’s basketball team defeated the Virginia Cavaliers 59-49 in its home opener Saturday. The Trojans’ matchup with the ACC school measured the young team’s potential to take on its ranked conference opponents later in the season.

The Trojans took the lead with just over five minutes remaining in the first quarter and didn’t look back. The game was all about defense — both teams kept each other’s field goal percentages low and the backcourts dry on the stat sheet. 

Head coach Mark Trakh was especially proud of the team’s persistent pressure on Virginia even with a steady lead.

“It was 40 minutes of defense,” Trakh said. “I mean, it was 40 minutes — every time down, did they not struggle? Every single time we did not want to give up anything easy at any point, so I was really proud of that.” 

Trakh’s lineups focused on the team’s freshmen, who made up five of the nine players who saw action in Sunday’s contest. Among them was freshman guard Endyia Rogers, who showed out in the second half despite a slow start to finish with 10 points and six rebounds. 

Another notable performance came from freshman guard Kyra White. The numbers on the stat sheet don’t entirely reflect White’s strong showing. She guarded Virginia senior Jocelyn Willoughby and held the first-team All-ACC guard to 10 points and four rebounds to prove her tenacity on the defensive end of the floor. 

Graduate transfer guard Stephanie Watts posted her first double-double as a Trojan with 14 points and 12 rebounds, playing 32 minutes and adding five blocks on the game.

Even after besting her impressive performance against CSUN on Tuesday, Watts still saw the ability in her freshman teammates to produce for themselves.

“They’re just so willing and eager to learn,” Watts said. “They’ll be like, ‘Oh, should I play this a different way?’ during the game, like they want to know [and] they want to do better.”

The Trojans’ presence down low adjusted throughout the game with Trakh incorporating freshman forward Alissa Pili, senior forward Kayla Overbeck and freshman center Angel Jackson. The trio took on Virginia’s 6-foot-3 senior forward Lisa Jablonowski and 5-foot-11 freshman guard Carole Miller, totaling 15 rebounds and four blocks between the three of them. This was Overbeck’s first game, as she sat out against CSUN due to an injury.

The competitive matchups between USC and Virginia extended to the sidelines as well. Virginia head coach Tina Thompson’s knowledge of USC’s basketball program could rival Trakh’s — she was a three-time All Pac-10 selection and second-team All-American for Southern California from 1993 to 1997. 

Thompson’s No. 14 jersey was retired by USC in a pregame ceremony. Former USC assistant Fred Williams presented her framed jersey in front of both Thompson’s former teammates and her current team.

Besides multiple NCAA honors, Thompson put together one of the most impressive careers in WNBA history. With four championships and nine All-Star appearances, as well as two Olympic Gold Medals from the 2004 Athens Games and the 2008 Beijing Games, Thompson’s resume earned her an induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2018 class. 

“To see her jersey up there was just something so well deserved,” Watts said. “So we’re all really happy for her and can’t wait to celebrate her even more.”

The game gave the Trojans their second straight win to start the season and evened Virginia’s record at 1-1. 

USC will have several days to rest before hitting the road for a Thursday game against University of California, Riverside and a Monday game against UC Santa Barbara.