USC hopes to learn from most lopsided loss under

Lindsay Gottlieb needed her USC staff to be examined by the best. That’s why she put together one of the most grueling schedules in all of faculty basketball, with 4 video games against groups ranked in the top 4.

With three of those exams accomplished, the outcomes haven’t been what she or any of the Trojans hoped for.

USC misplaced by 17 to No. 2 South Carolina and 28 to No. 1 Connecticut. But neither of those losses was as demoralizing as Saturday evening’s setback, as No. 4 UCLA took No. 17 USC to the woodshed in an 80-46 loss that would go down as the biggest margin of defeat in Gottlieb’s tenure with the Trojans.

“We got it handed to us,” Gottlieb said. “We can be honest and say this is an embarrassing loss.”

That could be understating it. USC was outshot 53% to 27% by its rival, outrebounded 46 to 26 and outworked in just about every sense of the phrase. The offense was out of kinds. The protection was disastrous, with UCLA recurrently blowing past USC in the post on its means to 46 factors in the paint.

It was an eye-opening collapse from a staff that got here into the season still clinging to national title aspirations. To a pissed off Gottlieb it was “a hard lesson that’s painful and not fun” — but one USC (10-4, 2-1 Big Ten) maybe needed to learn to take the next step.

“I’ve seen right now in three games that we’re not as competitive as we wanted to be with the top five teams in the country,” Gottlieb said. “But I’m not sorry we have them on our schedule. We’re not trying to be a top-25 or top-15 team. We’re trying to be the national champions. We’re trying to be the best program in the country.”

Whether that’s potential this season, without injured star JuJu Watkins, was in severe doubt after Saturday evening.

In the frontcourt, the Trojans are particularly susceptible. Never was that more clear than in watching UCLA heart Lauren Betts dominate whomever was in her path Saturday. She completed with 18 factors and 12 rebounds, 4 on offense, merely by overpowering the Trojans.

Last season USC had veteran bigs in Kiki Iriafen and Rayah Marshall to rely on against Betts and Co. On Saturday, USC forwards Gerda Raulusaityte, Yakiya Milton, Dayana Mendes, Vivian Iwuchukwu and Laura Williams completed a mixed one for 13 from the sphere.

USC guard Londynn Jones tries to dive past UCLA ahead Gabriela Jaquez at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

While USC has managed to get by without a lot from its frontcourt before, UCLA exploited that weak point from the start. The Trojans have been 5 for 24 inside the arc through one half, left to rely instead on their long-range capturing, which largely has been hit or miss.

That was enough to keep up for one quarter, as USC hit its first 4 three-point makes an attempt to offset its points inside. Kara Dunn hit a three in the second quarter and then assisted on one by Jazzy Davidson, and with 5 minutes left in the half, the Trojans have been down by just one.

But from that level those pictures stopped falling. UCLA fired off a 14-0 run as USC went scoreless for 5 minutes. The Trojans never recovered.

Dunn completed with a team-high 11 factors. Davidson, the Trojans’ top scorer this season, had 10.

“We want to be as good as we can be, but I think you learn harder lessons when you don’t play as well as you can or we’re undisciplined or we aren’t as focused as we need to be,” Gottlieb said. “Maybe there’s teams we can win against that way, but the ones that punish you when you do it will make you better, and that’s ultimately the lesson.”