The Trojans can take a breath.

USC women’s basketball is coming off a grueling three-game stretch. It had to play UCLA (15-2, 4-2 Pac-12), Colorado (16-2, 6-1) and Utah (14-5, 4-3), all three teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll. The Trojans (13-3, 3-3) came out of the toughest part of their regular-season schedule with one win over the Bruins, but fell to the Utes and Buffaloes on the road last weekend.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

But now the Trojans have to exhale as they prepare for the two Washington schools at Galen Center. They play Washington State (14-5, 3-3) Friday and then take on Washington (12-5, 2-4) Sunday.

Neither team is ranked — albeit the Cougars did receive votes in the most recent AP Poll — but that does not mean USC is taking them lightly.

“We’re coming off of two losses, so I think ranked or unranked, we can’t be chillin’,” said graduate guard McKenzie Forbes in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “Our backs are against the wall at this point. These are two must-wins for us. We feel like every weekend, the Pac-12 is a must-win weekend.”

Each team has its strengths, with the Cougars blocking the 13th-most shots per game in the country this season and the Huskies boasting the eighth-best team defense. However, neither team has played a team currently ranked in the AP Top 25 and won thus far.

The Trojans, slotting in at No. 11 in the AP Poll, have a prolific offense at all three levels that can combat the strengths of the Pacific Northwesterners as they look to keep stacking wins. USC has three players who shoot better than 35% from 3-point range, led by Forbes who has made a team-high 31 shots behind the arc.

“I think the intention of this year in general, with the players we have, is to shoot more threes and be more of a threat from deep,” Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said in an interview with the Daily Trojan.

As a team, the Trojans are shooting 36.2% from downtown — good for 28th in the nation despite only having the 60th-best scoring offense — nearly a 4% jump from last season.

On the shot-blocking side of things, USC has junior center Rayah Marshall to counter Washington State’s prowess in the paint. At 6-foot-4, she leads the Trojans in that department with 29 blocks on the season. But Marshall will have to face off against the Cougars’ 6-foot-6 freshman center Alex Covill, who leads Washington State with 34 blocks despite only averaging 9.9 minutes per game.

“If anything, that’s a good thing for me,” Marshall said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “When I see shot-blockers, it fuels me to be more aggressive because I feel like I’m capable of getting them in foul trouble. And even too, just if I know they’re shot-blockers, getting them away from the paint, setting great screens for my guards and rolling and getting some good offense that way.”

The Trojans might find success, though, keeping the ball beyond the arc and out of the paint filled with shot-blockers so they can utilize their successful 3-point shooting against the Cougars.

The same can be said when USC plays Washington, but the Trojans’ strength will be playing directly in the Huskies’ strength. Washington has been holding its opponents to a mere 26.5% from deep, which is the best in the Pac-12. That does not necessarily dissuade Forbes from taking those types of shots, though.

“We’ll see how the coverages are when game time comes and then I’ll just take a look at what the defense gives me,” Forbes said. “I think I have a lot of versatility to my game. I think I can drive to the basket, find others and get our bigs involved as well.”

If USC can break through Washington’s potent defense, it will have an easy time keeping the Huskies off the scoreboard. Despite having such a staunch defense, Washington has five losses — all in its last six games — because it struggles to score the rock. The Huskies score a meager 66.6 points per game, good for 162nd in the country.

While emphasizing 3-point shooting will be important for USC, Gottlieb knows that alone won’t be able to win against the Cougars and Huskies.

“We want to be a team that is not a one-trick pony, so to speak,” Gottlieb said. “You want to take what the defense gives you. Obviously we have to be intentional screeners and try to get ourselves looks at the 3-point line, but if they’re running up the 3-point line, maybe they’re giving up something else.”

This is certainly not a “take it easy” week for the Trojans, but should provide easier tests than last weekend — two ranked matchups at Rocky Mountain altitude. 

USC’s first matchup in this two-game homestand will tip off against Washington State at 7 p.m. Friday at Galen Center.