With 15 seconds remaining in the Trojans’ Sunday afternoon battle with Utah, superstar freshman guard Juju Watkins checked out of the game after sinking a pair of free throws to reach 30 points on the day. However, few in the stadium seemed to even notice Watkins clinching her USC record-extending 12th 30-point game of the season, as it was overshadowed by a substandard outing and disappointing 74-68 home loss for the Trojans.

No. 7 USC (21-5, 11-5 Pac-12) came into the game looking to build off an 87-81 win over No. 11 Colorado and extend a seven-game win streak, but was thwarted by No. 18 Utah (20-8, 10-6) for the second time this season.

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The attempt at righting the ship from last month’s 78-58 loss in Salt Lake City appeared doomed from the start, as the Trojans scored just six points in the first quarter, shooting 3-17 and 0-5 from 3-point range. 

“Our offense in the first quarter, I think it just took us a while … some of it was some missed shots, but more of it was [that] we couldn’t catch  our rhythm,” Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I thought we started attacking more in quarters two, three and four … [but] they’re too good of a team offensively to be playing from behind.”

While USC was able to settle in on the offensive end, shooting 48% from the field after the first quarter, struggles from behind the arc prevented them from keeping up with the Utes. The Trojans shot 4-20 from long range, their worst 3-point shooting day in exactly a year, having shot 4-22 in a win over Washington State at Galen Center on Feb. 25, 2023.

The Trojan with perhaps the worst shooting woes was Watkins, who started 3-14 from the field and did not make a jump shot until the fourth quarter. For stretches, a frustrated Watkins seemed to realize that her shot was simply not going to fall and shifted focus to getting to the rim, finding some easy buckets and kicking the ball out to open teammates. 

However, for the majority of the game, Watkins would not break away from a steady diet of jumpers, often missing by a lot on what was one of her worst shooting days of the season. 

Gottlieb has stressed the importance of “[letting] Ju be Ju,” and in many ways that quote will define USC’s season. On some days, it will lead to eruptions like Watkins’ record-setting 51-point outing against Stanford, and on others, it may lead to a lot of missed shots and frustration. 

Impressively, Watkins’ offensive struggles did not stop her from making an impact on the defensive end. It seemed as if she was using her aggravation to fuel extra defensive intensity. She had three blocks and two steals in the first half, including a mammoth swat on star Utes senior forward Alissa Pili that got USC legend Cheryl Miller out of her seat and fired up. 

Miller’s presence courtside has been another surreal storyline at Galen Center this season. While men’s home games often feature one of the greatest basketball players of all time in Lakers forward LeBron James, so do women’s home games in Miller. 

And while James often keeps a lower profile, Miller prefers to have her presence felt. She was out of her seat constantly on Sunday, cheering on the Trojans and expressing a variety of grievances with the officiating crew. Having Miller courtside and animated as Watkins breaks records she set nearly thirty years ago has served as an incredible galvanizer for Gottlieb’s squad. 

“The engagement with the alums and having them show us love, and feeling it from us, has been probably the most rewarding thing [this season],” Gottlieb said. “And the attention that [Watkins] has gotten actually shines a light on Cheryl because she’s breaking these records, and we get to say, ‘By the way, Cheryl’s the greatest of all time, and if there was social media at the time or if her career wasn’t cut short, she would be even more celebrated.’”

The loss dropped USC to third in a Pac-12 race that seems to be headed No. 7 Stanford’s way for a fourth consecutive year. But the Trojans have loftier ambitions than a regular season title, with the Pac-12 and NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournaments now just weeks away. With Watkins supplemented by graduate guards McKenzie Forbes and Kayla Padilla, the Trojans have the backcourt play to position themselves for a deep run in March. 

The scary part for future opponents? With every big game they play, Watkins and USC get a little bit better.

“Despite how this game went, this is what I came here for,” said graduate forward Kaitlyn Davis. “To play top teams, to play the top competition, that’s what we’re doing so I’m excited for the rest of the season.”

The Trojans will close out the regular season with a trip to the desert, taking on Arizona at 5 p.m. Thursday and Arizona State at 11 a.m. Saturday.