Women’s basketball to host Galen gala
In its final homestand, USC will play two top-25 teams with March on the cusp.
By THOMAS JOHNSON
USC’s opponents this weekend could not be more different.
Colorado women’s basketball (20-5, 10-4 Pac-12) plays with a balanced approach, as its three top scorers average in the scrunched range of 13 and 15 points per game.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Utah (19-7, 9-5) relies on one player to shoulder the bulk of the scoring load. Senior forward Alissa Pili averages 21.6 points per game, while no other Ute who has played in 2024 averages more than 11 points.
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The game plan for the Trojans (20-4, 10-4) remains the same though: Go out and win.
“We gotta play our own game and just focus on details,” said junior center Clarice Akunwafo in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “At the end of the day, it’s just basketball and you go out there and play like dogs and you usually get the win.”
The Buffaloes are the first on the docket, with the Trojans facing off against their Rocky Mountain foes Friday night at Galen Center. As with any Pac-12 team, Colorado poses a tough task; all of the Buffaloes’ five losses have come against ranked teams, something not even USC can say.
Colorado can also hang its hat on the fact it has already beaten USC earlier this season — a 63-59 Buffalo win Jan. 21 in Boulder.
But the Trojans and Buffaloes have gone in opposite directions since that early 2024 matchup. USC has won six straight games and seven of its last eight — two of those coming against ranked teams — while Colorado has lost two straight and its last three ranked matchups overall.
USC is a different team now that it is in its first matchup with Colorado.
“We have a significantly better-equipped team [now],” said Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “I have a better understanding of how I can make lineups and what we can do when we play bigger or smaller, trying to attack some matchups a little bit differently and then overall, I would say just the level of focus and understanding from our team of what it takes on both ends of the floor.”
Colorado won’t go down easy — its No. 11 ranking in the Associated Press women’s basketball Top 25 poll proves that — but much of the Buffaloes’ laurels came early in the season. They do have four ranked wins, but their most recent one came against the Trojans in Boulder and none of their four wins have come in a true road game.
In comparison, USC has four ranked wins, with three of those coming away from home.
Now against the Buffaloes, the Trojans can put aside their disappointing loss from a month ago with a Galen Center crowd at their backs.
“We’ve grown a lot,” said graduate guard McKenzie Forbes in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “I think we’re really different, X’s- and O’s-wise but also just maturity. [Freshman guard] JuJu [Watkins] gets better every game. I think we all get to know each other better.”
Along with the stark difference in offensive philosophies, there’s another major difference between the Utes and Buffaloes: Utah is an incredibly unpredictable team. Since the start of January, the Utes have played six ranked teams to a tune of a 3-3 record in those games.
What has been unpredictable about Utah, though, is which of those games the Utes lost. All three of their wins in the stretch came against top-10 teams, while one of the losses was a 25-point defeat to then-No. 25 Oregon State (21-4, 10-4).
Utah’s inconsistency lies in its secondary scoring. When the Utes defeated then-No. 8 Colorado, four players hit 12 or more points. But in the 25-point loss to Oregon State, only Pili made it over that threshold.
Even though Pili proved she could carry her team to victory in Utah’s previous matchup with USC — dropping 37 points on the Trojans in a 20-point drubbing — the Utes regularly win when it doesn’t all fall on Pili’s shoulders.
The Trojans have to balance keeping Pili in check, while also making sure Utah’s secondary options don’t get hot.
“[Pili] has been terrific, she’s a matchup nightmare,” Gottlieb said. “I’m genuinely happy for her. I think she got herself in great shape. She had a renewed love and passion for what she was doing.”
USC will remember Pili well. She spent her first three collegiate years at USC before transferring to Utah, one under Gottlieb’s tutelage.
“There’s so much drama about transfer and stuff, and at the end of the day you want everyone to win,” Gottlieb said. “Of course we want to win, of course, we don’t want them to beat us. But for me, she also went through a lot of hard off-the-court things here that year. And I think to see her having joy playing basketball and being really good is something that I’m happy for.”
The end of the season is coming up faster than when USC built a 17-point lead against Oregon (11-16, 2-12) this past weekend — which was pretty darn fast.
The Trojans only have two more guaranteed games left at Galen Center, with the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments on the horizon.
“There’s a pride to representing USC, and I hope [the fans] feel we play with that pride and that we enjoy ourselves while we’re doing it,” Forbes said. “It means a lot to us, and then just myself personally, representing USC has been a blessing.”
USC starts its final homestand with a 7 p.m. tipoff Friday against Colorado, followed by a noon start Sunday against Utah.
