USC women’s basketball came back from the Bahamas with their stylish shades while cruising to two wins against Seton Hall and upcoming Big Ten rival, Penn State. Next up is the first-ever matchup between Cal Poly and the Trojans on Tuesday.

The latter game in the Bahamas was a nail-biter, with freshman phenom guard JuJu Watkins scoring the final seven points of the game, including a game-winning layup with 30 seconds left.

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Graduate guard Kayla Padilla had a season-high three 3-pointers in the win against the Nittany Lions. Her main takeaway from the Bahamas trip was learning to play as a team throughout the different facets of the game.

“I think game-by-game we’re just learning each other more,” said Padilla in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “I think especially in that Penn State game, how we can overcome adversity … whether you’re facing a really tough, aggressive team, but also figuring a way to stay with our chemistry.”

The Trojans jumped to No. 6 in the Associated Press Poll — their highest ranking since 1994. Watkins has been a huge factor in this ranking, but the veteran presence of Padilla and junior center Rayah Marshall has proved very beneficial on the court.

“I think it helps in all facets, starting with practice, like leading by example,” Padilla said. “Then just being vocal leaders on the court, like being able to direct people and tell people where to go.”

In her third year with the Trojans, Marshall has looked like her defensive self so far in this young season. In addition to her six blocks on the season, she has captured 53 total rebounds. Her 10.6 rebounds per game are good for fourth in the Pac-12.

“I would say she’s even better than last year,” said Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb. “I think she’s our anchor in terms of changing culture and what we want to be.”

This can’t be a USC women’s basketball piece without talking further about the No. 1 high school recruit in the country in Watkins. Her 26.2 points per game leads the Pac-12 by a wide margin with the second number of points being at 22.3 points per game. Through only five games, she has already tied the program freshman record for most 30-point games, with three, tying Trojan legends Lisa Leslie and Paula McGee.

Despite the shattering of expectations so far in this season, Gottlieb has expressed the needed improvement of eliminating the turnovers.

“I think while we’ve had some big wins, we turn the ball over too much still,” Gottlieb said. “I think we can do better in how we want to play on offense in terms of playing fast but also executing in all different kinds of defenses.”

Cal Poly (2-4) is on a Pacific coast stretch with losses coming against tough Pac-12 opponents in No. 3 Stanford (7-0), Cal (6-1) and Washington State (7-1). Their most recent game was a win against Seattle University (0-6), 68-43.

“They’ve played against some really great teams, they’ve played Cal and Stanford recently and have kept up with them, and they have great players,” Padilla said. “While we’re 5-0 and their record may look different, they’re coming out hungry.”

The Trojans will look to exploit the vast height difference in rosters, with the Mustangs having only six players above 5-foot-9 and the Trojans having 11 players of such stature on their roster.

Cal Poly will end their long seven-game road trip Tuesday. The one thing that jumps out of the stat sheet from the win against Seattle University is junior point guard Annika Shah’s 3-point shooting. The Bay Area native attempted 14 3-point shots while making six of them. No single Trojan has shot more than nine 3-pointers on the season.

Because the nationally ranked Trojans are facing a two-win Big West team, there seems to be no stirring of an upset, however, if Shah can light up the 3-point line and the rest of the Mustangs can try to capitalize on the Trojans’ turnovers, then USC could be in it for a close game Tuesday.

USC starts a home stretch of four games against in-state opponents in Cal Poly, University of San Diego (3-3), UC Riverside (2-3) and Cal State Fullerton (2-3). The Trojans have excelled at Galen Center under Gottlieb, going a combined 26-9 in just over two seasons at the helm for the Trojans.

“We’re trying to build something and the best women’s basketball programs have a culture of fans that are excited to see them play,” Gottlieb said.

The Trojans put their perfect 5-0 record to the test Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. against Cal Poly at Galen Center.