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SALT LAKE CITY — Freshman phenom JuJu Watkins wasn't enough to stop Utah women's basketball Friday night at the Huntsman Center in a top-20 matchup.
The other one-time freshman of the year from USC, Alissa Pili, took it to her former team with a game-high 37 points, including five 3-pointers, and six rebounds to lead the 20th-ranked Utes to a 78-58 win over a visiting Trojans team with only one previous loss on the season.
With the third quarter coming to an end, Pili drained a contested 3-pointer to give her 29 points and Utah (13-5, 3-3 Pac-12) a then game-high 17-point lead on a USC team that shot 36% from the floor entering the fourth quarter. It was just a small sampling of the work Pili showed in the conference battle.
Watkins may be the future, but Pili remains the present.
"Being on a team like this, it's really easy to just go out there and play and not really worry about my stats and my points or whatever," Pili said. "But it's just props to my teammates for finding me, for creating shots for me, and things like that. It feels good to have a high-scoring game but I'mma always give credit to my teammates, because they're the ones that — my point guard and my guards — are the ones who help me do that and achieve that."
Utah head coach Lynne Roberts said Pili simply makes the game "fun," especially as someone not looking to pad their stats.
"I think what separates her, though — obviously, everyone sees her talent and her ability — but she wants to win, and she wants her teammates to do well," Roberts said. "She's not trying to get hers, so I think she knew for us to win she's got to produce, but it's not about — it's about winning with her. And when your best player's about winning and not about themselves, then that's when good things happen."
Good things certainly happened for the Utes in a 20-point win over a good Trojans teams, who struggled to find an offensive rhythm against what Roberts called a "tremendous" defensive effort by her team.
Outside of Waktins, who finished with a team-high 26 points and five rebounds, No. 6 USC (13-2, 3-2 Pac-12) had no answer on offense as the team finished shooting 36% from the field Friday night. Only one other player, McKenzie Forbes, for the Trojans finished in double-digit scoring.
That led to Utah building up a 21-point lead with 6:30 left to play in the fourth quarter and little left in the tank for the Trojans to make a run against a Utah team that played with a rhythm and flow not seen much since Gianna Kneepkens suffered a season-ending injury earlier in the year.
"I think we're playing a lot better," Roberts said. "We're playing a little more cohesive. There's a lot more — I can sense — just kind of synergy out there. I think people have settled into their roles."
🚨 Upset alert 🚨
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) January 20, 2024
No. 20 @UTAHWBB upset No. 6 USC, 78-58! @alissa_pili breaks it down with @autumnjohnsontv!#NCAAWBBpic.twitter.com/J6bk4z2tEG
Utah shot 32% from 3-point range and made 10 triples to put distance on USC, who was outscored in every quarter of the game.
The two teams traded baskets for the first few minutes of the opening quarter before Utah slowly built up a 9-point lead to closeout the quarter. The Utes continued to work from there and kept a double-digit lead for much of the night.
"We talked about that this was one that we weren't going to settle for anything other than winning: sell out, play as hard as you can, coach as hard as we can," Roberts said. "Incredibly proud of our team. USC is good; I mean, they're ranked for a reason. A lot of respect for them, but just a tremendous job for our team and what a great crowd."
In the winning effort, Utah also got Issy Palmer back on the court after a long-term injury she suffered in the third game of the season. Palmer only played nine minutes but finished with 4 points and was a key catalyst to Utah building upon its lead when she was on the court.
"I thought she did a nice job," Roberts said of Palmer. "You could tell she was a little rusty, which is to be expected. She hasn't played in 10 weeks; that's a long time, but I'm proud of her for pushing through what she's been through. ... She wants to play, she wants to compete, she wants our team to win, so she's just going to get more and more comfortable as she gets back in, and we're going to need it."
Maty Wilke added 12 points, including three 3-pointers, as the only other Utah player to finish in double digits on the night.
Utah returns to action Monday (5 p.m. MST, ESPN2) in another top-20 matchup with No. 5 UCLA coming to Huntsman Center.
