The first of back to back games against Top 4 teams in the country
The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s basketball team are off to a good start in the Big Ten heading into the second half of the conference season with a 6-3 record. But, the second half schedule is much tougher than the opening nine games. Minnesota gets their first taste of that Thursday night for their first of two games in Los Angeles against teams that are currently undefeated in the Big Ten, and rank in the Top 4 in the country. Minnesota will head to Galen Center and take on the #4 ranked USC Trojans and their star Juju Watkins on Thursday night.
Minnesota comes in off of a 71-50 win over Wisconsin at Williams Arena on Sunday. Minnesota was led by a great performance from junior Mallory Heyer who recorded her second double-double on the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds in the win. Grace Grocholski continues to pace the Gophers on offense and she led Minnesota with 17 points against the Badgers. Sophie Hart played a great game as well adding 16 points and four rebounds, and shut down Wisconsin star Serah Williams in the second half.
Minnesota received some good news on Tuesday when it was announced that hart was granted a 5th year of eligibility from the NCAA. Minnesota had put in a waiver for her as she played just five games her sophomore season for NC State before transferring to Minnesota at the semester break. Hart will be a 5th year senior in 2025-26. This season Hart has started all 21 games and is averaging 8.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.
USC enters the game with a record of 18-1 and an 8-0 record in Big Ten play. The Trojans lone loss came in November when they lost 74-61 to then #6 Notre Dame. They have wins over #4 UCONN and at #7 Maryland.
Minnesota can hope that potentially the Trojans might be looking past them and their game on Thursday night. USC heads to Iowa on Sunday where Caitlin Clark will have her number retired and the game will air nationally on Fox.
USC is led by a double-headed attack of the best players in the nation. Juju Watkins is one of if not the best sophomore in the nation and is averaging 24.8 points per game, 6.6 rebounds per game, 3.58 assists per game, 2.37 steals per game, and 1.89 blocks per game while shooting 45.8% from the field. She has scored in double-digits in every game this season for the Trojans. Joining her is Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen. The 6’3 forward was named the best power forward in the nation a year ago for the Cardinal and has not missed a beat after transferring to USC. She currently is averaging 17.8 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game, and is shooting 51.% percent from the field. Add that to 6’4 forward Rayah Marshall who is #3 all time in USC history in block and #7 all time in rebounds, and Minnesota will have a very serious matchup problem.
USC is by far the best team the Gophers will have seen all season—-until possibly Sunday. The Trojans rank first in the conference in scoring margin (29.6), scoring offense (83.8), scoring defense (54.2), and blocks per game (7.1). Minnesota will need to play their best game of the season to keep this close, and even that might not be enough.
The tip is set for 9 PM central time and the game will stream on Peacock.