Swanson: USC women going back to Elite Eight thanks to fearless freshmen

SPOKANE, Wash. — Those gutty little Trojans.

A few fabulous freshmen – a few fearless, formidable freshmen – picked up the USC women’s basketball team Saturday in its moment of need, leading the top-seeded Trojans to a 67-61 victory over fifth-seeded Kansas State before 10,610 fans at Spokane Arena.

A trio of first-years – Kennedy Smith, Avery Howell and Kayleigh Heckel – kept on fighting, picking up the Trojans for JuJu Watkins, giving the injured superstar a reason to smile at home.

They picked up the pieces for seniors struggling to get it going against a well-prepared Kansas State (28-8) team.

And they made certain USC picked up a second consecutive Elite Eight berth – a second consecutive Elite Eight berth against No. 2 UConn, though the kids wouldn’t personally know about that. They were still in high school when Watkins, herself then a phenomenal freshman, went toe-to-toe with Huskies star Paige Bueckers in a season-ending loss last year in Portland.

While we’re offering history lessons, how’s this: The last time a USC women’s basketball team made consecutive trips to the Elite Eight, a sophomore named Cheryl Miller was leading them and it was 1984.

Three decades later, the Trojans are back in the mix, just as Coach Lindsay Gottlieb promised they’d be: a top seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second season.

They’re still jockeying for a spot in the Final Four, even without Watkins, who suffered a torn ACL in the second round and had to watch her team go forth without her on TV. But she was there with the Trojans, Gottlieb said, in spirit – and in the form of a miniature Funko Pop figure on the bench.

That USC is still in it – however uphill the next leg is against Bueckers, who dropped a career-high 40 points in UConn’s 67-59 Sweet 16 victory over Oklahoma – is a credit to the Trojans’ freshman cohort. They came to USC as a class of seven, they all live in the same apartment complex, and, assuredly, they live for the big moment.

“I knew coming in we were going to have some tough games,” said Smith, a former Etiwanda star. “… I’m ready for the moment. Even in high school, just the balance with that, I think I was prepared to be in the position I am right now.”

Smith proved it by scoring a team-high 19 points on 7-for-14 shooting. Her menacing defense resulted in four steals. The 6-foot-1 guard also finished a team-best plus in the box score, which told us the Trojans outscored the Wildcats by 19 points – in a six-point game! – during the 36 minutes she was on the floor.

Howell knocked down 6 of her 11 shots, including four of her eight 3-point attempts, to finish with 18 points.

And in 24 minutes, including eight important minutes with the game in the balance late, Heckel was an interrupting force, in attack mode 100% of the time and chipping in with eight key points.

“There’s a level of excellence that’s needed at this program,” Howell said. “Starting from our coaching staff’s expectations to the greatness that’s been here in the past. Coming here, we knew there was going to be that level that we had to get to … and this is definitely a moment that everyone wants to be a part of.”

The moment, none to big for these young women, was a big-league gut test. The Trojans (31-3) never led by more than seven and they trailed – by as many as five – or were tied for significant stretches.

Kansas State’s 6-foot-6 Ayoka Lee caused problems for the Trojans around the rim, making their star graduate transfer Kiki Iriafen uncomfortable and forcing her to take mostly midrange shots as she followed her season-high 36-point effort in the second round against Mississippi State with a season-low-tying seven points Saturday.

And yet, USC is back where it left off last season, with another chance to reach the Final Four. Improbable a couple seasons ago, and much less probable now than it was a week ago.

Gottlieb told a story about when centers Rayah Marshall and Clarice Akunwafo were freshmen in Gottlieb’s first season at the helm, how USC beat No. 2 Arizona, and she told them: “‘Hey, like, enjoy this. At some point we are going to be that team that other people are trying to beat.’

“And [Marshall] tells it funnier than I do, but she’s like, ‘This lady’s crazy.’”

Crazy enough to think she can engineer a victory, with a few audacious freshmen driving the action instead of Watkins, over a red-hot UConn team when they meet again at 6 p.m. Monday?

Yeah. Sure.

“There’s so much love for JuJu in our program, and everyone values her and knows nobody’s like her, and we’ve kind of kept her close,” Gottlieb said. “But I don’t think we’ve ever had this feeling of, ‘Oh, no, all of our goals are gone.’ And neither has JuJu.”

“We’re taking her competitive nature onto the court with us every single time we step there,” Howell said. “And we know that she’s back home supporting us, having a watch party, doing everything she can to give us that good JuJu.”