After bouncing back from last week's 0-2 showing in Hawaii with a win over former Pac-12 rival Washington State on Wednesday, the Oregon Ducks opened their Big Ten schedule against another former Pac-12 foe, the No. 6 USC Trojans, on Saturday. Behind a 21-point performance from star sophomore JuJu Watkins, the Trojans left Eugene with a 66-53 victory, dropping Oregon's record to 1-3 in its last four games.
The game began with a competitive first quarter, as Deja Kelly gave the Ducks (7-3) a late 13-12 lead with a pull-up from the elbow near the end of the first quarter. Oregon head coach Kelly Graves came up with a plan to take away Watkins, which was successful in the first, constantly pressuring her with Oregon's best two defenders — Elisa Mevius and Sofia Bell. Watkins was held to just five points, all coming at the line while missing all three of her first-quarter shots.
The Ducks swarmed the Trojans (8-1) with a strong defensive effort, not allowing a field goal until nearly four minutes into the game before Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen hit a layup. Bell quickly answered with a three that guard Payton Scott followed up with a steal and score of her own to force a USC timeout with the momentum seemingly in Oregon's favor. Watkins' relentless pursuit of free throws kept the Trojans in the game as the Ducks outshot them 50 percent to 23 percent, but her three trips to the line were the only foul shots awarded to either team.
When the second quarter started, Watkins decided it was time to take over. She began the quarter with a dime to Rayah Marshall for a layup to take the lead before hitting tough shots on the Trojans' next two possessions, forcing a Graves timeout. Watkins then drilled her first three that guard Avery Howell followed up with one of her own before Watkins pulled up from deep in transition to extend the run to 15 straight points to begin the quarter.
"We just looked disjointed," Graves said of the Ducks' second-quarter woes. "I thought the ball was sticking. We weren't getting any movement that we got in the second half — that we even in the first half of the first quarter, we just turned it over seven times. That killed us, we kept shooting ourselves in the foot."
Kelly had an opportunity to stop the run there but missed both of her shots at the free-throw line. Iriafen completed a three-point play on the other end and the USC lead was up to 17.
"We just lost our energy," Kelly said of the second quarter. "We lost our focus on what our game plan was."
Ari Long came in off the bench for the Ducks and quickly stole the ball for a wide-open layup, finally ending the USC run after 18 straight in just over five minutes. Long was Graves' top option off the bench on Saturday, leading all reserves with 10 points and five steals — a career-high. Saturday marked just the third double-digit scoring game of her career with the other two coming last year with Washington Huskies.
"Just being ready whenever my number's called," Long said of how she prepared when her opportunity came. "I never know how much I'm gonna play, but just being ready to come in and go as hard as I can for however long I get and then knowing that my teammates will come in and keep that going. It's nice for every opportunity."
Just a minute into the third, Watkins picked up her fourth foul, sending her to the bench for the first extended stretch of the game. With the Trojan's leading scorer finally off the floor, Oregon had the opportunity it needed to mount a comeback, but every time the Ducks seemed to gain momentum, USC would immediately respond to silence the crowd. After Nani Falatea hit a corner three to cut the lead to 14, Iriafen got right to the line for a pair of free throws. The 2024 Pac-12 Most Improved Player finished with 17 points and a team-leading 12 boards en route to her fourth double-double of the year.
Watkins returned with just over three minutes remaining in the quarter and Long instantly started looking to attack her, hoping to force the Trojans' star to foul out. She drove to the hoop for a layup, knowing Watkins would be far less aggressive defensively before hitting a pair at the line and scoring on a fastbreak. Long ended the quarter on a single-handed 6-3 run over the final two minutes as Oregon outscored USC 22-15, cutting the lead to 14 to start the fourth.
"When I saw her in front of me, I know USC needs her in the game," Long said of attacking Watkins. "I knew she would probably be a little less aggressive. I was just going at her and when I'm getting to the rim, just finishing and trying to get her to draw a foul. Because obviously, she's a big part of their entire team."
"She's been working really hard in practice," Graves said of Long. "She kind of gets labeled as a shooter, but we've noticed that she's more than that. She gets five steals, she gets her hand on a lot of balls, and when we got more aggressive defensively, it created some easier offense."
Both teams traded baskets in the fourth as Kelly added six more points on multiple tough shots, bringing her total to a team-leading 16 on efficient 8-of-15 shooting. After Watkins hit her third three, Kelly drove for two before Elisa Mevius found Phillipina Kyei to cut USC's lead down to 11 with just under seven minutes to play. But the Trojans responded quickly with five points in less than a minute to bring it back to 16, stealing the momentum from Oregon's late push.
Watkins finally fouled out with just over three minutes remaining, but it was too late as USC held on for the win.
"Obviously, the foul trouble limited her a little bit," Graves said of Watkins. "But 21 points on 15 shots, I thought for the most part we did a really good job on her."
The Ducks outscored USC in three of four quarters, but ultimately it was the dominant second-quarter performance from the Trojans that proved the difference. After a slow first, USC's shooters woke up, hitting eight threes from the second quarter on compared to just 3-of-20 long-distance shooting from the Ducks for the game.
"You can look at this in a hundred different ways," Graves said after the game. "3-for-20 from three, 9-for-25. That's 18 points."
Oregon will now have time to get rested before its next game, not playing again until December 17 when they will host Air Force before taking on UC Irvine two days later. The Ducks will resume their Big Ten Schedule again on Dec. 28 when they head to Illinois for their first road test in their new conference.
"We know what it's like to play USC," Graves said. "The rest of the conference is gonna figure out what we've been going through for the last many, many years."
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