No. 1 UConn Huskies No. 16 USC Trojans 9-0 7-2
Saturday, December 13, 2025
Time: 5:30
Galen Center
Los Angeles, California
TV: FOX
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Prior Match ups
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA | UCONN
UCONN LEADS 4-1
H: 1-1 | A: 1-0 | N: 2-0
12/07/02 #3 UConn 68, USC 44 Hartford, Conn.
12/07/03 #1 UConn 72, USC 69 Los Angeles, Calif.
04/01/24 #10 UConn 80, #3 USC 73 Portland, Ore.
12/21/24 #7 USC 72, #4 UConn 70 Hartford, Conn.
03/31/25 $3 UConn 78, #4 USC 64 Spokane, Wash
USC Overview
Southern California is still working on their game with the big turnover of players they had from last year to this year. And especially considering they are still without JuJu Watkins and will be for the season, it could be tough for them to maintain a Top 25 position.
They beat up New Mexico State 87-48 in their opening game and squeaked by No. 9 North Carolina State 69-68 on a basket by freshman Jazzy Davidson with 8.2 seconds left in the game.
In the very next outing at the time No. 2 South Carolina hammered the Trojans 69-52 in a game that was competative in the first half. They bounced back with a win over Portland before losing to at the time No. 24 Notre Dame 61-59.
Since that loss USC has gone on a four game winning streak beating Tennessee Tech 85-44, Pepperdine 82-52, Saint Mary's 82-52 and in their last outing won their initial Big Ten game of the season 59-50 over No. 21 Washington. Two former PAC 12 conference mates.
Comparative Team Statistics
(leader in bold)
UConn USC
91.0 PPG 72.2
51.9 Defensive PPG 52.9
39.1 Scoring Margin 19.3
50.4 Field Goal % 42.3
32.8 Defensive FG% 34.0
39.8 Three Point % 31.3
29.9 Defensive 3PT% 23.5
75.4 Free Throw % 65.6
41.6 Rebounds/Game 40.2
8.7 Rebounding Margin 2.0
24.1 Assists per game 17.0
11.9 Turnover per game 13.0
2.0 Assists/TO ratio 1.3
15.0 Steals per game 9.7
4.6 Blocks per game 6.6
UCONN
The player and coaches names for both teams
are clickable to see their Bios
are clickable to see their Bios
UConn Starters
USC
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Game Analysis
Last season USC began and ended with the amazing freshman JuJu Watkins. The precocious youngster led the team to a losing effort in the Elite Eight game against the Huskies. This year the Trojans had added a Robin to Watkins' Batman. And they looked like they were going to make a championship run. KiKi Iriafan transfered in from Stanford and made an immediate impact on USC. But now with the season ending injury to Watkins, USC is down to just Robin. And UConn ended their season.
So now USC has a totaly revamped roster. Just a few returning players and of course JuJu will miss this entire season.
The new star of the team is 6'2" freshman guard Jazzy Davidson. The long and thin lefty, Davison leads the team in scoring at 16.7 PPG. Sounds good right? But there is a lot of pressure on this young lady and she is what you would call a volume shooter. Jazzy leads the team by far in shots per game at 16 per game. But she only shoots 42.4% from the field and 24.6% on threes. She leads the team in rebounding at 7.2 RPG and assists as well with 4 APG. She will be fun to watch. A lefty too!!!
Kennedy Smith, a 6'1" sophomore guard will be relied on to pick up some of the missing scoring. The only returning starter that will be on the court for the Trojans at the start of the season – parlayed her 2025 Big Ten All-Freshman and All-Defensive Team honors into a gold medal with Team USA at the FIBA AmeriCup. The No. 6 recruit in the 2024 class, Smith is now the fourth leading scorer at 10 PPG. Smith is having a horrible shooting percentage this season. She is only shooting 31.7% from the field and 18.8% on threes. A big guard she rebounds at 4.2 per game.
Kara Dunn is a 5'11" senior transfer from Georgia Tech. There she was the star of that team and was All-ACC firest team. A great accompliment. This year, in her first at USC, Dunn is averaging 11.4 PPG and is the second best rebounder at 5.4 RPG. She is one of the better shooters on the team shooting 42.4% from the field and 39.4% on threes.
Vivian Iwuchukwu is a 6'3"sophomore from Nigeria and the only size in the starting lineup. She is averaging 5.3 PPG and 2.7 RPG. She is shooting a team leading 64.5% from the field. She starts but is only averaging 13.3 MPG.
Malia Samuels returns as a 5'6" junior guard. Last year she came off the bench but has elevated into a starting position.The speedy guard is averaging 3.4 PPG and is really struggling from the field. She is shooting 31.3% from the field, 36% on threes and 30% from the free throw line. She does average almost 2 steals per game.
USC doesn't havve the longest bench. In their toughest games they only go two deep so that is all I'm report on here.
Gerda Raulusaityte is a 6'3" forward from Lithuania, who provides size and production with the absence of the graduated Iriafen. Gottlieb noted that the staff was looking for someone with leadership, experience, and unafraid – Raulusaityte is 21 and has been playing on the national level overseas for some time. First off the bench, Gerda is averaging 4.1 PPG on 56.5% shooting and 4.2 RPG for the Trojans.
We all remember little Londyn Jones, a 5'4" transfer from UCLA. She is a double digit scorer off the bench at 11.1 PPG and is shooting 37.5% on threes. She is the best free throw shooter on a poor FT shooting team at 88.2 going 15-17 on her attempts.
Final Prediction
This is going to be a really tough game for USC. Yes, they are home, and they even might ride an early jolt of adrenaline to stay with UConn early and even lead for a short time. But any success will be short lived. UConn's experience and depth will start to wear on the Trojans and UConn will pull away.
UConn will go 8-9 deep while the game is close and if they pull away they could go even deeper into the bench. While UConn is an experienced returning championship team, USC has only one starter back in Kennedy Smith and only two other players returning. They will only go 7 deep.
As good as last seasons UConn team was last year this team's defense is better. Even the bench is playing great defense with supreme effort. It's very rare that Geno doesn't game plan for a team dominated by one player, Jazzy in this case. She is really talented but she is a freshman and will have her struggles against the aggressive UConn defense. The Trojans only average 70 PPG. I can't see them breaking 60 against UConn.
I'm not sure the USC post defense is up to the task of holding down Sarah and Serah. If the rims are favorable to Fudd look for another big game.
Massey has it a 9 point spread. I like UConn by 15+. Emphasis on the plus.
