Women’s hoops beats Cal, loses to Stanford


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The USC’s women’s basketball team earned a split in a pair of tough conference road games this weekend, defeating Cal 75-67 Friday before falling to No. 6 Stanford 79-59 Sunday.

Friday’s win was spearheaded by a balanced USC scoring attack that featured four players with double-digit points. The group was led by freshman center Angel Jackson, who had 19 points on 11 shots.

Jackson and the Trojans benefited from strong showings by graduate guard Aliyah Jeune and freshman forward Alissa Pili, who finished with 18 and 17 points, respectively. 

Pili continues to impress for USC as she remains the Trojans’ leading scorer in her true freshman season, averaging 14.4 points per game while shooting 48.3% from the field. 

Pili has certainly turned heads in her short time at USC, but head coach Mark Trakh wants to see continued improvement from her as she continues to acclimate to the collegiate level and expand her skillset moving forward.

Pili is equally as demanding of herself. After the road trip, she expressed a desire to improve her vision and passing accuracy when she receives extra attention in the post from opposing defenses.

Pili and the Trojans won the turnover battle and received significant contributions off the bench in Friday’s win, a stark contrast from Sunday’s disappointing loss. The Trojans fell in a hole early as the Cardinal seized the lead in the opening minute and never looked back. 

Stanford led by as many as 33  points late in the first half, hitting shot after shot while playing smothering defense on the other end. After just 10 minutes of action, Stanford was leading 28-6, and the Trojans went into the locker room after an abysmal first half trailing 49-21.

A bright spot for Trakh and the Trojans was another solid showing from Pili, who scored in double digits for the eighth straight game and finished with a team-high 12 points. 

Pili was pleased with the team’s effort in the second half but said the team needs to do a better job of being mentally prepared right out of the gate against teams with multiple offensive weapons. 

The second half was much better for USC, as it outscored the Cardinal 38-30 and held Stanford to just one made 3-pointer in the final two quarters compared to 10 in the first half. 

Trakh was encouraged by his team’s second-half resilience, commending its ability to fight back despite not hitting many shots in the first half.

“Once our young kids settled down, we did fine,” Trakh said. “We’re using these games as learning experiences. Nobody has four freshmen and one sophomore out there for prolonged minutes like we do.”

The Trojans’ bench production was concerning Sunday as Stanford second unit outscored USC’s reserve 36-17 — compared to a mark of 25-8 in favor of USC against Cal.