USC guts out tough win against Cougars

The Trojans eked out a 68-65 double-overtime win against Washington State Saturday afternoon. After their victory against Washington Thursday night, the Trojans wrapped up the regular season with a sweep of the Washington schools before they head into postseason play. 

After the first quarter, the Trojans were just 4-18 from the field, shooting 22.2%. During the second quarter, their shooting woes continued and at halftime, they were just 6-34 from the field and shooting 7.1% from beyond the arc. On the other end of the floor, Washington State seemed to make everything they threw at the basket, shooting well over 50% from the field. 

“The way we came into the game, we were just not ready,” said graduate forward Kadi Sissoko in a postgame press conference. “We knew before the game that it was gonna  be a dogfight, so we had to wake up and I knew we was capable of doing better than this.”

Coming out of halftime, the Trojans remained resilient and battled through, using their defensive efficiency to balance out their struggles on offense. The Trojans held the lead for just 2 minutes of play while the Cougars maintained the lead for over 39 minutes. 

“Credit to our players, they decided who we are and what we are is gonna be to ‘give it our best effort,’” said Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb in a postgame conference. “[There] was a togetherness, a toughness. It was unreal.”

The Trojans came alive in the fourth quarter, making 6 of their 10 field goal attempts, including 8 free throws while holding Washington State to 9 points. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Trojans were down by 12 points and, despite surges by USC throughout the second half, the Cougars seemed to never fold. However, the Trojans used a 7-point run to start the fourth quarter, successfully pursuing a comeback that would end with redshirt freshman guard Taylor Bigby scoring 3 straight points to send the game to overtime. 

In the first period of overtime, the Trojans found themselves down by 3 points with just over a minute and a half left to play. No more than 30 seconds later, graduate guard Okako Adika splashed a 3-pointer to send the game to yet another overtime, where the Trojans would eventually prevail over the Cougars, outscoring them 8-5 in the second period of overtime. 

Throughout the season, the Trojans have consistently looked to their senior leadership, consisting of Sissoko, graduate guard Destiny Littleton and graduate guard Rokia Doumbia, who had 18, 14 and 13 points respectively in Sunday’s game. 

“Having a lot of transfers and seniors who are mature enough to know what it takes to win a game and what it means to not do the little things, such as when things are not going great,” Doumbia said in a postgame conference. 

Sophomore forward Rayah Marshall had 7 points, and Bigby came off the bench and tacked on 11 more points.

“Bigby is essentially our only freshman,” Gottlieb said. “Sometimes her minutes go up and her minutes go down, [but] she’s committed to this group because of these leaders, because of the older players.”

Marshall had 3 blocks in today’s game, bringing her season total to 89. She now sits in third place for the most amount of blocks by a Trojan in a single season. In the past seven games, Marshall has recorded an average of 4.57 blocks per game and now has at least 1 block in 49 consecutive games. 

One other factor that played a significant role in today’s game was the home crowd that surrounded the Trojans and cheered them on to victory. 

“It’s amazing,” Sissoko said. “I love the atmosphere. I love Galen Center.”

USC forced 23 turnovers, marking the 28th time this year that the Trojans’ opponents have had 10 or more turnovers. The Trojans also had 12 steals against the Cougars, which makes it the 12th game this year in which they have had double-digit steals. As the Trojans look forward to the Pac-12 tournament, which starts next week and goes from March 1-5 in Las Vegas, they will look to continue playing with their defensive efficiency that is made up of forcing turnovers and creating steals. 

USC will play against Oregon State in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament March 1 at 8:30 p.m.