USC women's basketball suffers first loss of 2025 at Iowa

USC women’s basketball suffers first loss of 2025 at Iowa

Posted by author February 2, 2025 Basketball

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USC women’s basketball played horrible offense in the first half and horrible defense in the second half of a stinging loss at Iowa

We said over the weekend that the USC women’s basketball team needed to start quickly at Iowa against the Hawkeyes. USC has had scratchy starts to recent road games, falling behind early versus Indiana and Purdue. USC needed to get on top of this road game in Iowa City, especially since a revved-up home crowd was hyped for Caitlin Clark Day, the day of the icon’s jersey retirement ceremony.

We wrote this about USC and slow starts:

“There is no question USC can turn on the jets if it falls behind. USC cranks up the defensive intensity and can very quickly turn a game around. It is good to know that.

“However, USC women’s basketball does not want to get into the habit of letting the opponent throw the first punch. Life will be easier for USC in March Madness if it can get on top of games and force opponents to climb uphill in the second half.”

Hopefully the Trojans learned a lesson on Sunday. If they did learn, it came the hard way in a 76-69 loss to Iowa. It’s USC’s first loss of 2025, the first-ever Big Ten Conference loss for the Trojans, and the second loss of this season. USC scored just four points in the first 13 minutes, falling behind 23-4. The Trojans roared back for a 47-41 third-quarter lead, but after Iowa struggled for roughly 20 minutes, the Hawkeyes were bound to play better, and they did. They scored 48 points in the second half and got 28 points from Lucy Olsen to power past USC down the stretch.

USC’s bad habits caught up with the Trojans. We will have much more on this game and the road ahead for the Women of Troy in the next 48 hours. Stay tuned.