Gophers women’s basketball team sinks against No. 4 USC

Thursday night on the West Coast, the Gophers women’s basketball team did many of the things it wanted to do in a battle with fourth-ranked USC.

The Gophers — particularly Amaya Battle — kept the Trojans’ Player of the Year candidate, Juju Watkins, in relative check. Against one of the best defenses in the Big Ten, the Gophers took care of the ball, battled on the boards.

But it took a few minutes for the Gophers to find their footing, and it cost them in an 82-69 loss.

Unsteady at the start, the Gophers (18-4 overall, 6-4 Big Ten) trailed by 15 points before the game was six minutes old and were never able to come all the way back.

“We didn’t start very well,” Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said by phone. “We got sped up. We didn’t finish at the rim. We turned the ball over. All of a sudden, they’re on a run.”

But the Gophers had a few runs in them, too.

Down as many as 20 late in the third quarter, the Gophers rallied to within six on Sophie Hart’s basket with 8:10 left in the game. That’s as close as they got. Seconds later Avery Howell’s three put USC (19-1, 9-0) back in control for good.

But, in the Trojans’ home building, that early deficit was too much.

“Obviously we’re not happy with the slow start,” Hart, who had her second straight outstanding game with 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists, said by phone. “But once we found our groove we competed well. We have to learn from this. We can compete with great teams.”

Mallory Heyer hit five of seven three-pointers while scoring 17 points with seven rebounds.

Battle scored 14 points with seven rebounds. More impressive, she played one of the best defensive games of her career. Watkins had a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double. But she had two points and was 0-for-10 in the first half and had just nine points after three quarters. Third in the nation in scoring, Watkins was 7-for-24 overall, 1-for-8 on threes.

Battle played all 40 minutes.

USC center Kiki Iriafen more than made up for Watkins' missing points, scoring 23 points on 9-for-11 shooting. Nine of those came in the first quarter, which ended with USC up 10. The Trojans hit 11 of 27 threes (40%) and had a 20-5 edge in scoring off the bench while winning their 15th straight game.

Down 20 with less than four minutes left in the third quarter, the Gophers had one run left in them.

Over 5:15 of clock time Heyer hit three three-pointers and scored 11 points and freshman Tori McKinney had two drives in a 17-3 run that took the Gophers from down 61-41 to within 64-58.

“It felt a lot like the Northwestern game,” Plitzuweit said, referring to the Gophers’ late rally to victory. “We didn’t have the zip and pop. Not physically — we were playing hard. But it was more a matter of we didn’t execute early in the game. We have to do a better job slowing down at times."

It doesn’t get any easier. The Gophers finish their two-game road trip at No. 1-ranked UCLA on Sunday before coming home for games against Iowa and Indiana at Williams Arena.