USC Women Bury Purdue 79 to 37

USC Women Bury Purdue 79 to 37

by: Steven Stremming, Excel H Sports/USBWA

photos by: Greg Flint, Excel H Sports/Flint Photography

Purdue Women’s Head Coach Katie Geralds and her staff have their work cut for them, especially after tonight’s Southern California (USC) (Excel H Sports #3 ranked team) crushed the Boilermakers in Mackey Arena.

The team has now fallen to seven and twelve over-all but a winless B1G Ten schedule (0-8).

The one bright spot of the night was a good first quarter that saw Purdue posted a 16 to 15 lead.

Then the reality of a highly ranked team in your building came forth as the Lady Trojans bolted out and outscored Purdue 31 to 2 for the quarter. You read that correctly, two points in a quarter. This is why USC is a legitimate national championship contender.

USC would outscore Purdue 33 points to 19 in the second half to close out the game.

Judea Sky (JuJu) Watkins led the Trojans with 16 points on six of fifteen shots from the floor and collected seven boards.

Avery Howell came off the bench to lead USC with 18 points on four of seven from the floor and four of seven from behind the arc and a perfect six of six from the line.

Kennedy Smith chipped in with 12 points on four of eight shots and three of five from the three-point for USC.

Vivian Iwuchukwu scored eight points in nine minutes of floor time, while Kiki Iriafen scored seven points in the first half while Kayleigh Heckel scored six points off the bench.

USC moves to 18 and one and a perfect eight and zero (8-0) in B1G Ten action.

Purdue was led by Kendall Puryear with ten points.

For the game, USC was 27 of 62 from the field for a 43.5% from the floor, 11 of 30 for a 36.7% from behind the arc with 40 team rebounds, 14 assists on the 27 made shots, nine steals and seven blocks.

Purdue was 15 of 49 for a 30.6% from the floor, two of fifteen from the three-point behind the arc for a 13.3% percentage. Purdue turned the ball over 23 times and nine team assists.

 

Great Start by Purdue Bows to USC Dominance

By Shawn Martin

For the first eight minutes of the Women’s College Basketball game between Top Five ranked USC and the host Boilermakers of Purdue on Wednesday night in Mackey Arena, the Boilers played near flawless.

Then the talented Trojans asserted their dominance with a game deciding 31 point run over 9:58 of the first and second quarters to go from behind 16-10 to up 41-16.

USC coasted to a 79-37 win and are ready to get out of the cold Indiana weather and back to Southern California.

Purdue built an impressive 12-5 lead – after nine consecutive points – on the fourth ranked Trojans. USC closed out the opening stanza with a 10-4 run and trailed by a single point after ten minutes of play 16-15.

Purdue Coach Katie Gearlds said she wanted to petition the conference to end the game after the first quarter.

Purdue would not score again until the 1:58 mark of the second quarter and were down 46-18 as they headed to the locker rooms for halftime.

USC’s length and athleticism really caused the Boilers a lot of problems offensively, defensively, and rebounding. Pretty much across the board, the Trojans had three or four inches on every one of the Boilers they were matched up with. Multiple times in the last three quarters, Purdue struggled to get a shot off before the shot clock expired.

Eleven players saw action for Purdue. Ten of the eleven played at least nine and a half minutes. All but one Boilermaker had a turnover in the game. Only starting guard Destiny Lombard failed to contribute to the 23 Purdue turnovers in the game. Wednesday was Lombards 23rd birthday. She had a hot start to the game and scored 8 points and was the only Boilermaker to shoot above 50% for the game – including 2-2 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Reserve Kendall Puryear led Purdue with 10 points.

The Trojans had very balanced scoring throughout their lineup. Freshman Avery Howell had 18 points off the bench to lead USC. Sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins added 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists. Another freshman Kennedy Smith carded 12 points. One other player had eight, two had seven – including 6-3 senior Kiki Iriafren who was injured in the second quarter and did not return – one with six and another with five. USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb didn’t know the severity of Iriafren’s injury, but said she could not have returned to the game had it been closer.

The B1G leading Trojans are 18-1 (8-0) return home and next face #23 Minnesota on January 30th. Purdue falls to 7-12 (0-8) and will travel to Illinois January 27th.