The Buckeyes end their lone trip to California against JuJu Watkins and the Trojans.
The No. 7 Ohio State women’s basketball team (20-2, 9-2) is still adding three hours each time they look at the clock, playing one more game on Pacific Time before heading back to Columbus. The Buckeyes play four of their last six regular season games at the Schottenstein Center, but the No. 7 USC Trojans (20-2, 10-1) give the last challenge on the toughest road trip in college basketball.
It began Wednesday, with a rough 65-52 loss to the Bruins where the Buckeyes were tied with the No. 1 team in the nation within the first minute of the fourth quarter. Ohio State shot a season-low 29.7 percent from the field, had one tough quarter defensively against UCLA center Lauren Betts and couldn’t come away with the upset.
Against the Trojans, Ohio State has its final shot beating a top 10 team in the country at full strength. Led by an All-American and three starters named to Naismith Watch Lists, it is no easy task for the Buckeyes.
Preview
On paper, the challenge is supposed to be easier for the Buckeyes on the campus of Southern California, but it brings its own hurdles for Ohio State.
The Trojans are second in the Big Ten standings, hopping over the Scarlet and Gray after defeating the Wisconsin Badgers Wednesday night. In that game, USC defeated Wisconsin on the road to the tune of an 86-64 rout. USC had seven blocks, adding to their nation-leading 6.9 blocks per game which should scare the Buckeyes more than a 6-foot-7 UCLA center.
When the Buckeyes step onto the court Saturday night, they face a Trojans program that will tower over the visitors. All but one player in the likely USC starting five is under six feet tall, and she stands at 5-foot-11.
It’s not only size but how they use it. USC isn’t about being physical, no. It’s a side full of athletes who marry speed and size together, play sound defense and will make things difficult on the defensive side of the ball.
Up first is the star of the show, 6-foot-2 guard JuJu Watkins. While the roster says Watkins is a guard, there’s no one position that fits the sophomore to a T. No, Watkins has the speed and ability to dish the ball like a guard, but has the size of a forward to take on nearly anyone one-on-one and go to the basket.
A lone criticism of the guard’s play is that Watkins is known to attack to the right. Well, the second year Trojan from Los Angeles has worked throughout the offseason and regular season to strengthen her game to the left too.
There you go, JuJu
FOX pic.twitter.com/wujNjeIZdp
— USC Women’s Basketball (@USCWBB) February 2, 2025
Despite scoring a conference high 24.2 points per game, should defenders double up Watkins in the paint, she has numerous options to go to and is tied for the team lead in assists with 3.5 per game.
The most dangerous of the supporting cast around Watkins is Stanford transfer forward Kiki Iriafen. Standing at 6-foot-3, Iriafen is a double-double machine, nearly averaging one this season with 17.7 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. That’s a little low for the potential WNBA lottery pick too, with Iriafen scoring 19.4 points and 11.0 rebounds per game under Tara VanDerveer and the Stanford Cardinal.
When Iriafen gets the ball, she shoots from anywhere inside the perimeter with high efficiency, and most of the time it’s coming outside of the paint. Iriafen is known for a strong midrange jumper, hitting shots on an island when defenders are trying to stop the Trojans from hurting them inside.
It’s likely that guard/forward hybrid Taylor Thierry is one of the Buckeyes tasked with defending Iriafen, unless head coach Kevin McGuff puts the taller and more athletic Thierry on Watkins.
USC also has strength on the inside, with 6-foot-4 Rayah Marshall, leading the team with 8.9 points per game and last season Marshall made the Buckeyes pay in USC’s 83-74 win over the Buckeyes to start the 2023-24 season. Marshall had 18 points and 17 rebounds in the Ohio State defeat.
Now, Ohio State is better on the boards this season with transfer forward Ajae Petty and freshman center Elsa Lemmilä, but the two of them can’t do it alone, especially with the two swapping minutes on the court. For the Buckeyes to compete, they can’t give the Trojans rebounds.
How the Buckeyes pull off an upset is by earning more possessions and hitting shots. This season, USC’s two losses came in games where they gave the ball away at least 18 times. The Trojans are 4-2 in games with at least 18 turnovers given away, with nearly a third loss on the first night of the season when they narrowly escaped Paris, France with a 68-66 win over Ole Miss.
Sunday, the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrated the jersey retirement of former star guard Caitlin Clark, and included an upset win 76-69 win over the Trojans in the festivities. What flustered USC was the wall of noise in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, disrupting the then No. 4 team in the country. While Ohio State won’t get that much vocal support in Los Angeles to replicate the noise of the Hawkeye faithful, the Buckeyes can disrupt the Trojans with their full court press.
On Wednesday, the Buckeyes proved they can make a normally responsible team on possession make mistakes. Against the No. 1 UCLA Bruins, McGuff’s side forced 23 turnovers. A big difference in Ohio State’s chances Saturday surrounds what happens when those extra possessions come their way — they need to make shots.
It sounds like groundbreaking game analysis to say making baskets gives a team a chance to win, but go back and watch the loss to the Bruins and it’s clear why it needs to be said. Outside a handful of Ohio State’s 68 shots taken, shot selection favored the Buckeyes. The Scarlet and Gray just couldn’t hit them with any kind of consistency.
Starters not named Jaloni Cambridge or Cotie McMahon scored a combined nine points, with one of the three not scoring a basket. If Ohio State wants to win, guard Chance Gray needs to make things easier in the post for her teammates.
In the last four games, Gray is 1-of-16 from beyond the arc, when at the start of the year the junior transfer from the Oregon Ducks couldn’t miss, even hitting a program record-tying nine threes in the second game of the season. It won’t be as easy too over 6-foot-1 USC guard Kennedy Smith.
Thierry also has contribute more offensively. To the senior’s credit, in past seasons a missed three would mean the Cleveland, Ohio native would stop taking them altogether. Against UCLA, Thierry took three shots from beyond the arc and missed them all, with none of them under heavy defensive pressure. It’s not realistic for Thierry or Gray to miss that many opportunities without making them.
The best shooters in college basketball often say after bad games that nothing will change and they’ll keep shooting. That mantra applies to this Ohio State team too. If the shot selection options are similar to Wednesday, it’s hard to imagine two games in a row with that many misses.
USC returns home for this game after defeating the Wisconsin Badgers 86-64. In the rout, no Trojan plays 30 minutes, which means they’re also more fresh than the Buckeyes.
Projected Lineups
Ohio State
G- Jaloni Cambridge
G- Chance Gray
G- Taylor Thierry
F- Cotie McMahon
F- Ajae Petty
Lineup Notes
- Ajae Petty’s zero points against the Bruins marks the third Ohio State starter in the last four games to score no points, joining Cambridge against the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Gray against the Maryland Terrapins.
- Cambridge has eight rebounds in three of the last five games.
- McMahon scored 14 points Wednesday, matching her total against both UCLA and USC last season.
USC
G- JuJu Watkins
G- Talia von Oelhoffen
G- Kennedy Smith
F- Kiki Iriafen
F- Rayah Marshall
Lineup Notes
- Marshall and Watkins both were named to the Naismith watchlist for Defensive Player of the Year.
- Watkins is fourth in the Big Ten with 2.4 steals per game.
- USC freshman guard Avery Howell averages 13 points in the last four games for the Trojans.
Prediction
Ohio State and USC will be closer than Wednesday’s final score, with the Buckeyes needing some time to adjust to the vastly different game of the Trojans than the Bruins. Regardless, shooting will be better for the Buckeyes and the matchup will come down to the fourth quarter.
Gray will be second in points on the team behind Cambridge, whose speed and court vision will be a benefit to the Buckeyes. In the end, USC will come away with the victory.
How to Watch
Date: Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025
Time: 9:00 p.m. ET
Where: Galen Center, Los Angeles, California
Television: FOX
Stream: FOX Sports App
LGHL Score Prediction: 82-78, USC Trojans
Frustration on the Road
Following the loss Wednesday night for the Buckeyes, coach McGuff shared what was on his mind when it comes to teams traveling to California for two games against the two of the best teams in the nation. For the first time this season, it sounded like frustration crept in at the coast-to-coast travel.
The media asked McGuff about how when West Coast teams come east, they don’t have back-to-back against top ranked opponents, which isn’t the case for teams going to California.
“Probably no other way to do it realistically because two trips coming this way probably wouldn’t make sense, but it does put the teams coming here at somewhat of a disadvantage having to play two of the best teams in the conference,” said McGuff. “We’ll see how, you know, over the long term, how the league office kind of handles that because, you know, you could put UCLA coming and playing like next year, us and Maryland, if they want to.”
It doesn’t sound like there will be massive changes next season, with every team playing every other team at least once set through the end of the 2025-26 season, but if the conference listens to McGuff, the teams on the Pacific Coast may have tougher trips in the future.