LOS ANGELES — She moved with the patience of a turtle and the urgency of a sloth, the flow state unbreakable by this fourth quarter, JuJu Watkins maneuvering behind one left-wing screen to find a sliver of daylight.
As she stepped back, this sleepy Tuesday night at the Galen Center, a hand flew in front of her face. It might as well have been a gnat. Watkins let fire, anyway, because USC was up by several sets of double-digits and there was fun to be had.
Her eighth 3-pointer of the night dropped home, without so much a nick of the rim, and Watkins pitter-pattered back downcourt as if she was a kid who had successfully completed a theft from her parents’ cookie jar.
After struggling with her shot to start USC’s season, connecting on just five of her first 28 3-point attempts in USC’s first five games and struggling mightily at 0 for 5 in the Trojans’ late-November loss to Notre Dame, Watkins heated up during a two-game trip to Palm Springs. A couple of days later, on Tuesday night, the sophomore went supernova in USC’s 94-52 drubbing of an overmatched Cal Baptist team, finishing with a cool 40 points on 12-of-18 shooting.
“I think it was a mental adjustment for me,” Watkins said, postgame. “I think, like I said, the goal is to have fun, always. And I shoot my best when I’m not really thinking.”
A pull-up 3-pointer late in the third quarter gave her a USC record-tying seven for the night. That early fourth-quarter step-back gave her eight, shattering another program mark. And Watkins added one more for good measure, a minute later, subbing out shortly thereafter amid the blowout as USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb gave her a knowing smile and pat on the shoulder.
After a few performances to start Watkins’ sophomore season when she often looked hurried, falling into the same shot-forcing or turnover-prone patterns of her freshman year, she looked the part of a truly poised veteran on Tuesday in the most efficient performance of her USC career. Suddenly, she’s up to 25.5 points per game on 48% shooting from the floor and 38% from behind the arc this season, a marked improvement in her overall profile from an All-American freshman year.
“I’ve never, for one second, not believed that her game is on an upward trajectory,” Gottlieb said. “And it was really nice to see the ball go in today so much, because I think it’s a really – the numbers haven’t been indicative of how well she shoots it, and it’s just gonna open up more things for us.”
And Watkins’ spacing, at times, did visibly open lanes inside for Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen, who feasted against a smaller CBU lineup with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Center Rayah Marshall added a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) and five blocked shots herself, while Oregon State transfer Talia Von Oelhoffen continued to settle into a combo-guard role with 14 points and six assists.
The victory extended a three-game win streak for no. 6 USC (7-1) since that loss to Notre Dame, when Gottlieb affirmed her program had been “exposed” by the Fighting Irish. Since, the Trojans have beaten Seton Hall, Saint Louis and Cal Baptist by a combined 114 points, heading into their Big Ten debut at Oregon on Saturday.
Grace Schmidt had 12 points and seven rebounds to pace the winless Lancers (0-9), who trailed 50-20 at halftime. Claudia Field added 10 points.
