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Two USC freshmen galvanized their team past Kansas State Saturday, 67-61, to earn an Elite 8 berth for the second straight year.
Kennedy Smith scored 19 points, Avery Howell had 18 points and 8 rebounds, and Rayah Marshall put up 10 points and grabbed 9 boards, as they helped the top-seeded Trojans overcome losing All-American and top scorer JuJu Watkins, who tore her ACL in the second round five days earlier.
After trading leads for most of the first three quarters, the Wildcats tied it at 51 early in the fourth quarter, on an Ayoka Lee layup. Rayah Marshall made two shots for USC, but then a Serena Sundell layup got Kansas State within one. Capitalizing on a foul by their opponents with 32.3 seconds left, the Trojans were able to close out the game at the free throw line.
The absence of Watkins, who averaged 33.8 minutes per game, and was on the floor 87 percent of the time this season, presented a challenge for USC to reconfigure their game plan in a short period of time.
Howell said the team’s poise kept them going.
“We’ve emphasized a lot on not turning the ball over, so even with the shift in lineups and the things we had to go through the past week, I think it just falls back on how much emphasis we’ve had on being strong with the ball, having composure,” she said. “I think it’s just falling back on our habits and staying level-headed.”
Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said her team, which had 9 turnovers on the night, took care of the ball.
“We have bigs that really handle the ball well,” she said. “Rayah has three assists and one turnover, and we can put the ball in their hands quite a bit. The balance of it, everyone’s ball security was really good.”
Trojan players talked to Watkins, wore a T-shirt with her photo on it into the arena, and said they took her spirit on to the court with them.
“We still have the common goal of obviously winning a National Championship, so with Ju going down, it was a bit of adversity that we had to face, but (we had) her in our presence,” Smith said. “We talked to her before the game. She was rooting us on….so just keeping her in our hearts and minds and playing for her, as well as for each other.”
Howell said she and her teammates also tried to fill in the gap left by Watkins’ absence.
“It’s just finding a balance of the role that she’s played for this entire program since she’s been here,” Howell said. “We have her in our thoughts, and we’re supporting her from here, and we’re taking her competitive nature onto the court with us every single time we step there.”
“We know that she’s back home supporting us, having a watch party, doing everything she can to give us that good JuJu, you could say.”
USC also kept a Watkins figurine in front of them on the bench during the game. Gottlieb said she FaceTimed the young star afterwards.
“She just, she hit me and just said how proud she was, before this game even, of the coaching staff, of the players, of everything that we are,” Gottlieb said. “And then right after – it was hard to hear in the locker room – but there were a lot of smiles, and my daughter was blowing kisses to her and said, ‘JuJu’s not hurt?’ And I said, No, she’s still hurt, but she’s happy today and with us.”
“So just trying to keep her, like they said, her spirit with us. She’s just such an incredible young person and I think the way the team has responded says a lot about them, but also a lot about her and the true amount of chemistry that they have with each other.”
The Trojans face UConn Monday for a trip to the Final Four.
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