USC women’s basketball started the year on a similar note as the last, taking down the No. 20 Ole Miss Rebels in Paris, France and winning a second consecutive season opener over a ranked opponent, last year’s being No. 7 Ohio State.

Sophomore guard JuJu Watkins led the Trojans (1-0) in both matchups, but the team received contributions from several new faces in this year’s opener against the Rebels. Graduate forward Kiki Iriafen, a transfer from Stanford, and freshman guard Kennedy Smith were second and third in scoring for USC, combining for 34 of the Trojans’ 68 points. Both Watkins and Iriafen recorded double-doubles, the first time two Trojans have done so in a season opener since 2010.

Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb was especially impressed with Smith’s defensive abilities out of the gate, and the Trojans entrusted her with guarding Ole Miss (0-1) graduate point guard Madison Scott. Gottlieb said Smith’s physicality is already at the collegiate level, which had a huge impact against a feisty team like Ole Miss and allowed her to guard anyone on the floor.

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In addition to Smith’s solid opening day, Gottlieb said Iriafen’s performance showed how her court presence will be a difference-maker for the Trojans.

“She’s really good [and is] relentless on the boards,” Gottlieb said. “There’s the pace that she plays with [and] the pressure she puts on defenses in transition that she’s really good at, but [she] also brings a lot of intangibles that probably go unnoticed that make the team better.”

Despite double-digit scoring contributions from Watkins, Kennedy and Iriafen, the Trojans’ victory did not come easy. The Rebels’ veteran squad and defensive prowess made things difficult for USC, forcing 26 turnovers that cost USC crucial offensive possessions. It’s not a huge surprise that the Trojans made the number of errors they did in their opening matchup with all the new additions, but Gottlieb expects better.

“There’s no excuse for turning the ball over as much as we did,” Gottlieb said. “Ole Miss’s pressure is legit and they’re an excellent defensive team, so I don’t want to discredit them at all but I thought we were sloppy. I thought we reverted to some old bad habits … and we didn’t do a lot of the stuff that we wanted to do.”

Now, USC is scheduled to play a slate of home games, closing with a ranked matchup against rival Notre Dame (1-0) Nov. 23. But first, the Trojans have a tough weekend ahead with Cal Poly (1-0) and CSUN (1-0) coming to Galen Center.

In the Trojans’ upcoming matchups, Gottlieb wants her squad to take better care of the basketball and start to connect better offensively. Gottlieb’s style relies on having a balance between playing freely and maintaining ball control, something USC struggled with in their opener. Ole Miss disrupted that playstyle with their pressure, and Gottlieb and Co. will look to improve on that during this home stretch.

“We want to play fast in transition, but I don’t want to call a set every time because it puts pressure on our [the] players to make the right basketball play again and again,” Gottlieb said. “The offense might be ten-straight shots by perimeter players [or] it might be ten-straight post entries; it’s the defense that dictates what the right play is. We want to use our speed and athleticism to get to uncontested shots, and it could look a little different every game.”

No matter the Trojans’ struggles against the Rebels, a win is a win, and they started the year the way they wanted. This won’t be USC’s only ranked matchup in non-conference play either, with games against the University of Connecticut Huskies (1-0) and the Fighting Irish on the schedule.

The Trojans are set to play the Mustangs on Saturday, with tip-off at 2 p.m.