USC Women's Basketball: Lindsay Gottlieb Blames Trojans' Two Straight Losses On 2 Big Factors

The Women of Troy had a rough week.

Your 13-3 USC Trojans suffered two of those losses last week, falling 78-58 to the No. 16-ranked Utah Utes (then ranked at No. 20 by The Associated Press) in a non-competitive blowout last Friday, and then 63-59 to the No. 3-ranked Colorado Buffaloes on Sunday. 

Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb diagnosed the causes of each defeat, per of Qais Adawiya of The Daily Trojan.

“We didn’t love our effort [against Utah],” said Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb. “This was probably the toughest three-game stretch anyone will have.”

The third game to which Gottlieb is referring is USC's surprise home victory over the then-undefeated UCLA Bruins, a hard-fought, high-scoring 73-65 affair on Sunday, January 14th.

The Colorado game, at least, was almost a win.

With 5:50 left in regulation against the Buffaloes, reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Week and recent Ann Meyers Dreysdale Award Top 10 shortlist honoree JuJu Watkins, the second highest-scoring player in the nation behind Caitlin Clark, was ejected for the first time as a Trojan. The 6'2" shooting guard's remaining available teammates couldn't quite replicate her offensive contributions down the stretch.

“I didn’t think the whistle went particularly our way,” Gottlieb said. “The team rallied. We haven’t played too many minutes without [Watkins]. I thought the others did a good job giving us a chance to win against a really good team on the road.”

Watkins is averaging 26.1 points on .438/.349/.830 shooting splits, seven boards and 3.4 dimes.