USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb entered her postgame press conference on Saturday with soaking wet hair slicked back into a bun and a wide grin on her face. Even though the outside temperatures in Hartford were well below freezing, sitting at the podium in drenched clothing was well worth the experience of celebrating with her team.
The No. 7 Trojans doused Gottlieb and superstar JuJu Watkins with water bottles in the locker room after they upset No. 4 UConn 70-72 in front of a sold-out home crowd at the XL Center. It was USC’s first win over the Huskies in program history and a moment of redemption for the team’s returners after UConn eliminated them in the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
“This is a really significant win, and it’s a really significant win because of the stature of UConn’s program and what Geno Auriemma has done for our sport,” Gottlieb said. “It doesn’t matter to me that they haven’t won a championship in a couple years. There’s still a way that they prepare, a way that they play that makes you better, and it made us better … To bring a team here and know that we could do it and then to actually do it is incredibly meaningful.”
Gottlieb’s words were intended as the highest praise, but there was a hard truth underlying them: It matters to UConn that it’s been eight years since their last national championship. It matters when they lose by two points to a top-10 opponent in December, and that was apparent in the devastated expression on Sarah Strong’s face despite recording her third career double-double against the Trojans. The usually-stoic freshman, who logged 22 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and four steals, appeared to hold back tears as she sat with the frustration of a single missed free throw that cost UConn a chance to tie the game with five seconds left.
“It hurts to lose. I don’t like losing,” Strong said. “I don’t know, I’m just kind of upset right now at the game and how it ended.”
UConn women’s basketball falls short in second-half comeback, loses 72-70 to No. 7 USC, JuJu Watkins
Auriemma hoped he would have a better sense of his team’s capabilities after its grueling December schedule, but the longtime UConn coach seemed less confident in their identity than he has all season after the loss Saturday night. The Huskies can be an elite 3-point shooting team, but they never got hot after a slow start against USC and finished 6-for-23 beyond the arc. They gave up eight turnovers in the first half and trailed by as many as 14 points in the second quarter before mounting a comeback after halftime.
“In the second half, we ran some stuff that we actually practiced,” Auriemma said. “Like, we didn’t make up an offense and then run out there and try to run it. In the second half the ball moved. People moved. We got the shots we wanted, where we wanted to get them with who we wanted to get them, and the entire first half there was zero of that … The average person would say well, why is that? I’m an average person too, so I would say yeah, why is that?”
Losses to top-ranked teams in the regular season won’t hold much weight come March outside of NCAA Tournament seeding, and it’s not completely surprising to see the inexperienced Huskies struggle against title contenders at this stage. But the stories of UConn’s two losses, to USC and at No. 3 Notre Dame, are uncomfortably similar: A sluggish start, defensive struggles on the perimeter, dominance from a young superstar and a valiant second-half effort that came up short.
Now entering a grind of unranked Big East matchups in January, the Huskies have one big question they need to answer: Which version of themselves are they going to become?
“When we’re really good, we’re really good, and when we’re not, we’re not,” UConn star Paige Bueckers said. “We can’t have two teams that show up every single night, whether it be a first-half team or a second-half team. We have to remain consistent in who we are and what gets us to winning. So we’ll take this Christmas break, get rejuvenated, and make sure that the right team is returning back to school.”
UConn’s most effective lineup against USC was in the third quarter after KK Arnold checked in for Kaitlyn Chen alongside freshman Morgan Cheli, sophomore Ashlynn Shade, Bueckers and Strong. Arnold played seven minutes in the third and logged four points, two rebounds and two assists, also contributing to six forced turnovers against the Trojans as a critical defensive presence during UConn’s 16-4 run.
Arnold is more impactful in shorter bursts on the floor because she plays with such a high activity level, which is why her minutes weren’t sustainable down the stretch when the Huskies needed stronger scoring threats to close the gap. But the sophomore didn’t even see the court for a full minute in the fourth quarter, and Auriemma didn’t make a substitution until the final 30 seconds of the game.
“If you’re struggling on the defensive end like we were, I do think you’ve got to change up the way the game is being played, and we’ve talked to KK a lot about that,” Auriemma said. “One of her biggest roles should be to come in and disrupt the game and change the way the game is played. I thought she did that, and we did it as a team, but she has the physical ability to do a lot more, and today she did that. It leads to her getting some opportunities, and obviously it led to us getting a lot of opportunities.”
The Huskies are also struggling to find quality minutes from any post player outside of Strong. Ice Brady has started every game at center, but it’s clear the redshirt sophomore is still adjusting to the role and has yet to play with a truly dominant presence in the paint. Redshirt freshman Jana El Alfy gives the team more length at 6-foot-5 and is a more effective rebounder with three in six minutes against USC, but she is still finding her footing in half-court sets at both ends of the floor.
Cheli played a career-high 21 minutes against USC as Auriemma leaned on a smaller lineup with Strong playing center, but star Trojans forward Kiki Iriafen had consistent success shooting over the Huskies in the mid-range to finish with 16 points. Cheli gave up two turnovers and had two fouls in addition to her five points, and she grabbed only a single rebound. Strong was the only Husky to finish with more than three boards, while USC center Rayah Marshall added nine to Iriafen’s 11.
“I always believe in people, that they can do what we need them to do, and we’ve said that we’re going to be the team that we want to be if we’re getting contributions from those guys,” Auriemma said. “They have to be able to make a 15-footer. They have to be able to keep the ball out of the lane. If we’re playing five against four because we can’t get any offense out of them and we need offense, it’s tough to play them. I know they’re both young, but if we can find a way to get some consistency … that takes a lot of pressure off of our guards. Right now, there’s too much pressure on them, so I’ve got to figure that one out. That’s on me and the coaching staff.”
UConn has an eight-day break before its next game against Providence on Dec. 29, but process of figuring out personnel may only be further complicated with star guard Azzi Fudd and sixth-year forward Aubrey Griffin poised to return from injuries at full strength. Fudd played just eight minutes and went 0-for-4 from the field against USC after missing the previous three games with a right knee sprain, and Griffin is targeting a mid-January return from a left ACL tear suffered last season.
“I think Azzi is obviously a high-level, elite player, and I do believe that when we get her 100% healthy and ready to go, that certainly enhances our team tremendously,” Auriemma said. “Not having played and only a couple of practices, I’d love to have her out there, but I just chose not to today for whatever reason.”
