After the final buzzer of No. 4 USC’s near-wire-to-wire 83-75 victory over No. 22 Michigan State Wednesday night, there was a strange feeling inside Galen Center. The Trojans had just knocked off a ranked conference opponent, trailing for just over a minute, and clinched a double-bye in the upcoming Big Ten tournament. But as Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb and her team gathered at midcourt for the postgame festivities, there were few players with smiles on their faces. 

In the fourth quarter, while never surrendering its lead, USC (24-2, 14-1 Big Ten) sloppily allowed the Spartans back into the game, turning the ball over 11 times and allowing 26 points. At one point, Michigan State (19-7, 9-6) went on a 21-6 run, cutting the Trojan lead to just six points with 4:01 remaining. 

It never got closer than that, but the Trojans just sort of limped over the finish line, coming up with a few key defensive stops and buckets from sophomore guard JuJu Watkins to close out the win. 

“We knew that when we built a lead, their strategy wasn’t going to be sag off and play zone. They’re going to do more of what they do, which is really pressure. And we can learn from it,” Gottlieb said in a postgame press conference. “Obviously we got a little sloppy and lax with the ball there, and it will make us better.”

Despite the late struggles, the Trojans never really seemed in danger Wednesday night, riding big performances from their two biggest building blocks: Watkins and graduate forward Kiki Iriafen. The pair combined for 52 points against the Spartans, the eighth game this season in which both have scored 20 or more — all of which were wins for the Trojans. It’s clear that if both Watkins and Iriafen are firing, the Trojans are favorites against any team in the nation. 

“Kiki and JuJu are the best duo in the country. They played like it tonight,” Gottlieb said.

USC’s star duo — only 26 games into a partnership that will only last one season — is seemingly still learning to coexist. There are many occasions in each game when Iriafen will have good position on the block and Watkins will take a contested shot, or Iriafen will be bulldozing her way into the paint and not notice a wide-open Watkins calling for the ball. 

Gottlieb doesn’t call as many Watkins-Iriafen pick-and-rolls as she could, and while perhaps that’s a trump card the Trojans are saving for March, the chemistry and link-up between the two does not seem a big part of USC’s identity. It’s a bit more “your turn, my turn,” which may not allow the pairing to reach its full potential but actually works well with Watkins’ streakiness.

After lighting it up in the first quarter, scoring 12 points on 5-8 shooting, Watkins went cold in the second and third periods Wednesday — scoring just 10 points on 2-9 shooting. With the sophomore’s shooting touch suddenly missing, Iriafen took over the game, scoring 20 points on 6-8 shooting and getting to the free throw line at will during the middle two quarters of the contest.

They’re not the most aesthetically pleasing star duo to ever take the court, but the task of slowing both of them at once remains a tactical nightmare for opposing coaches — a complex puzzle that few have been able to solve. 

Their styles of offensive attack could not be much more different, but the two are quite similar in their intensity and calmness, both on and off the court. Watkins and Iriafen are all business and don’t care to talk about much other than winning games, as exemplified by their answer in postgame press when asked if they had a nickname for their duo. 

“JuJu and Kiki. That’s us,” Watkins said. 

While the unnamed duo continues to lead the charge, a Trojan trio will also be crucial to any success in March: freshman guards Kennedy Smith, Avery Howell and Kayleigh Heckel. 

While all three don’t light up the box score every night, whenever there is a crucial play made or a turning point in a game, you can bet that one of Gottlieb’s fiery freshmen is on the scene. The energy they bring to the team is infectious, and it was no different last night. 

Smith added 13 points and four rebounds, Howell hit two big triples and Heckel didn’t put up big numbers but continued to organize well, truly serving as the closest thing on USC’s roster to a natural point guard. 

Playing three freshmen more than 65 minutes a game is a gamble by Gottlieb, but the trio has the talent to back it up. Even if the Trojans don’t take home a title in their first year on campus, the tournament experience will be incredibly valuable for Smith, Howell and Heckel.

It really is crunch time for the Trojans, who will not have a game until next season kicks off that does not have extraordinarily high stakes. The Big Ten regular season title will be on the line in their next two games. From there, it’s onto Indianapolis to try to secure the Big Ten Tournament, and then on to the big dance to compete for USC’s first national title since 1984.

Few teams have earned the right to appear angry after a resounding ranked win, but at this point, it seems very fair to say that USC is one of them. As unthinkable as it may have sounded a few years ago, the Trojans do have bigger aspirations than just coasting to victories over B-tier Big Ten opponents — and they will need to play better if they want to see them out.

“To get this far with two games to go is something that I’m proud of them for, but our goals are bigger than that,” Gottlieb said. “We have an opportunity in these next two games to compete for a championship, and that’s even more special.”

USC’s march into madness continues Sunday when the Trojans will take on No. 25 Illinois (21-5, 11-4) at 1 p.m. at Galen Center. While all eyes are on the regular season finale against No. 3 UCLA (24-1, 12-1), taking care of business against the Illini is just as crucial to USC’s Big Ten title hopes.