LOS ANGELES — USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb sat on the rostrum for postgame media availability after the Trojans’ hard-fought 61-60 loss to UCLA, she could not assist however present emotion.
The Trojans led a big a part of the sport with out their main scorer Kady Sissoko, who was out with an damage. They constructed a 12-point lead going into the fourth quarter. However they have been attacked by 10-0 UCLA to start out the final interval and could not get well from the punch.
On the verge of tears, Gottlieb expresses her frustration with herself at not with the ability to shut the deal.
“I am simply broke for our gamers. They’ve just about carried out every little thing we have requested them to do when it comes to competitors. There are all the time apparent errors, and we’ll see the film,” Gottlieb mentioned. “When a crew makes an effort like that, I need them to have the ability to have fun that.” I am within the locker room and I am upset and devastated that we could not carry them dwelling, actually, as a result of I could not get them dwelling to the end line within the fourth quarter.”
Get Prepared for WNBA Free Company: Save 23% on Your Subscription!
The 2023 WNBA Free Company is right here, and our employees of writers is working exhausting to carry you every little thing you want to find out about each crew within the league. Get began with a paid subscription, which helps help all of our writers, editors, and photographers who work tirelessly to carry you that protection and save 23%!
When it got here to UCLA head coach Corey Shut’s flip to take the rostrum, she was overcome with emotion, too. The Bruins did not present a lot toughness after recovering from a double-digit deficit in a recreation the place Charisma Osborne and Kiki Rice have not performed nicely this season, however they did in entrance of a packed crowd. With legendary alumni.
Ann Myers Drysdale, Noel Quinn, Kari Korver, Nina Westbrook, and Lauren Miller have been simply among the former Bruins who turned as much as witness the comeback. However the one title that introduced the close to to tears was not an ex-basketball participant. She was Corey Anderson, the granddaughter of legendary UCLA males’s basketball coach, John Wood.
As her voice trembled, Shut spoke of how she stopped chatting to Anderson after the match and the feelings that adopted.
“I used to be simply listening to her discuss what she noticed and excited about the sincerity of the individuals who got here earlier than us,” Shut mentioned. “It all the time will get to me as a result of Coach Wood has given me a lot. Not a day goes by with out realizing how lucky I’m to stroll the grades he first walked down. But additionally all these alumni of all these generations… It actually humiliates you as a result of we put on these letters and to have A higher illustration of ourselves.”
And the sport definitely represented one thing extra than simply the Pac-12 common season recreation on Sunday afternoon. Touted because the Battle of Los Angeles, each groups and coaches intention to make this rivalry the primary card within the metropolis when it comes to girls’s basketball. It appeared becoming that the match ought to come to an analogous conclusion as the primary assembly on 15 December.
In that recreation, the Trojans trailed 59-56 and ultimately had the ball. They tried to run a brilliant display screen by Alisson Miura, top-of-the-line sharpshooters, however she ended up trapped within the nook and threw a poor move that sealed the Trojans’ destiny.
subsequent one And equalizer They crew up
subsequent one share with equalizer To carry extra girls’s sports activities tales to your inbox. participation in subsequent one Now and get 50% off your subscription equalizer For twenty-four/7 protection of girls’s soccer.
On Sunday, the Trojans once more discovered themselves down by three, 61-58, and with the ball for his or her ultimate possession. They managed to get a shot this time. Future Littleton obtained a hand from Taylor Bigby on the prime of the corkscrew and gave the three prospects a very good look, however did not fall for it.
Whereas the Trojans had three losses on this recreation, this loss felt completely different.
“The sensation you get after that is actually completely different from the others due to the best way we competed and the sensation as if we had it on our fingers,” Gottlieb mentioned. “If shedding hurts like that, then you definitely’re doing a little issues proper. It is exhausting to swallow, it is actually exhausting to swallow for me however I really feel for it as a result of I assumed we did sufficient to win the sport.”
Gottlieb’s sentiments have been echoed with junior guard Kayla Williams, who tied teammate Wind Marshall with 15 factors.
“It is powerful now, and it is going to be powerful. However you may’t give it some thought an excessive amount of as a result of it is January ninth, and we have a whole lot of video games forward of us and we’ve to arrange for it,” Williams mentioned. “We’ve got to really feel it now and ensure we do not We really feel it once more, be taught from it and are available again.”
Add Locked on Girls’s Basketball to your every day routine
right here in subsequent oneAlong with the written content material offered by our employees 24/7, we additionally host the every day Locked on Girls’s Basketball podcast. Be a part of us Monday via Saturday as we talk about all issues WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball historical past, and extra. Hear wherever you discover podcasts or watch on YouTube.
On the Bruins facet, they’d a career-high efficiency from start line guard Lundin Jones who exploded for 22 factors and was key to getting baskets when the UCLA offense was struggling in opposition to the Trojans protection. It even caught the attention of Anderson who made positive to inform Shut that, “That woman from Inland Empire, she’s so good.”
Whereas Jones notes that her large efficiency was actually only a results of all of the work she’d carried out up so far, she did admit that the energetic atmosphere and well-known spectators within the crowd have been her standouts.
“That atmosphere will get me going, for positive, having such a supportive system round us,” mentioned Jones, “The followers are so supportive, all the time there, all the time cheering. And it helps, undoubtedly, simply my crew’s help and my help for one another.”
The one time these two groups meet once more this season will probably be in a possible Pac-12 Championship recreation in March. However regardless, they undoubtedly laid the groundwork for what an UCLA/USC matchup ought to appear to be.
“The sport was nice and all kinds of issues,” mentioned Shut. “However whenever you simply take into consideration the historical past and what we will be concerned in, it is very humbling.”