Opening day takeaways: How USC, JuJu Watkins survived Ole Miss to open the season

Women’s college basketball is officially back — and we’ve got you covered through a full day of games.

The first matchup of the day set a high standard for the rest, as No. 3 USC narrowly escaped an upset in its 2024-25 season opener. The Trojans, who led by as many as 15 points in the third quarter, held off No. 20 Ole Miss 68-66 on Monday in the opening game of the Oui-Play event in Paris.

The Trojans had barely trailed until the 5:22 mark, when the Rebels rallied to take their first lead of the second half. Ole Miss led 64-60 with 2:23 remaining, but USC hit its final eight free throws to seal the win.

USC sophomore JuJu Watkins, one of the front-runners for national player of the year, had 27 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 blocks, but also committed 9 turnovers.

USC’s Kiki Iriafen, who transferred from Stanford in the offseason, hit the winning foul shots with 9 seconds to play. She finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds. KK Deans led Ole Miss with 19 points, including four 3-pointers.

Monday’s schedule includes 16 games featuring Top 25 teams. Defending champion and No. 1-ranked South Carolina opens its title defense riding a 38-game winning streak into Monday’s matchup against Michigan in Las Vegas.

ESPN is breaking down all of Monday’s results — check back for updates as we continue to add analysis throughout opening day.

Did USC look like the country’s No. 3 team?

Creme: In the second quarter, when the Trojans outscored Ole Miss 22-10, yes. But that wasn’t the case for the other 30 minutes. Ole Miss won three of the four quarters and came back from a 15-point third-quarter deficit because USC’s offense got stagnant and relied too heavily on Watkins, Iriafen and the free throw line (23 of 29 for the game). Watkins and Iriafen scored 25 of the Trojans’ 31 second-half points, and 17 came at the stripe.

Coach Lindsay Gottlieb has two games against inferior opponents coming up (Cal Poly on Saturday and Cal State Northridge next Tuesday) to iron out some offensive ailments, but 68 points and 40.0% shooting from the field (including 1-for-11 on 3-pointers) won’t be enough against Notre Dame on Nov. 23.

Philippou: USC looked like a team with nine newcomers, including three new starters (Iriafen, Talia von Oelhoffen and freshman Kennedy Smith). The excitement over the Trojans’ incoming players — their two big-name transfers plus a stacked freshman class — comes with the reality that there’s some learning curve as the players get used to one another, which was exacerbated against Ole Miss’ pressure defense and with USC’s bench skewing young. Last year’s team leaned on veteran Ivy League transfers surrounding Watkins and Rayah Marshall — this season, there’s not a lot of basketball experience, individually and collectively.

Post-game, Watkins said USC is still learning from each other, and Gottlieb argued that chemistry forms more quickly under duress rather than in a blowout. The Trojans have less than three weeks to kick start that process before facing No. 6 Notre Dame; that’ll be a big checkpoint in accessing where the process is and whether USC is on its way to becoming the team it believes it can be.

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Madison Scott’s offensive putback puts Ole Miss up

Madison Scott picks up a teammate’s missed shot and scores for Ole Miss, forcing USC to call a timeout late in the fourth quarter.

How did Ole Miss nearly knock off the Trojans? What statement did the Rebels make?

Creme: Great defense has been a hallmark under coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, and the defense was outstanding against USC. Ole Miss’ length, particularly from players such as Madison Scott and Kennedy Todd-Williams, was disruptive. USC can be criticized for 26 turnovers, but Ole Miss had plenty to do with it.

We also got to see how important Deans would have been to the Rebels last season. In her debut since suffering a season-ending knee injury in late November 2023, Deans made 4 of 8 3-pointers in the second half Monday to lead a shooting flourish not typical of Ole Miss, which made 26.5% of its 3-point attempts last season. After going 1-for-11 from deep, the Rebels made five of their next eight from beyond the arc to get themselves back in the game. Ole Miss might have scored the upset if not for a pair of turnovers in the final minute.

Philippou: Ole Miss came in fifth in the SEC preseason poll, behind South Carolina, Texas, LSU and Oklahoma — all of which are preseason top-10 teams. Nearly upsetting a supposed national title contender in USC — and seeing Deans return to basketball in strong form as Charlie mentioned — will elevate expectations that McPhee-McCuin’s group can maintain its status as a ranked team, perhaps host NCAA tournament games and return to the Sweet 16 (the Rebels upset 1-seed Stanford to reach the regional semifinals in 2023).

How did USC’s newcomers fare?

Creme: Iriafen, ESPN’s No. 1 impact newcomer, was everything USC could have expected. In her final game at Stanford, she had 26 points and 10 rebounds. On Monday, she picked up where she left off. USC relied on Iriafen, went to her in key spots, and she hit the game-winning free throws.

Smith, the highest-rated recruit in the top class in the country, also delivered. She had 6 points in the ragged first quarter when everyone else was struggling. Smith finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds in her debut. The rest of USC newcomers didn’t contribute much. That will likely change with experience for the freshmen. Kayleigh Heckel and Avery Howell played a combined 24 minutes and scored 5 total points.

The head-scratcher is von Oelhoffen, who sat for long stretches with foul trouble and took five shots. USC won’t be an elite team without its two stars getting more help from von Oelhoffen.

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JuJu Watkins finishes ridiculous Eurostep and-1

JuJu Watkins finishes a tough Eurostep and gets an and-1 to add to USC’s third-quarter lead.

What stood out about JuJu Watkins’ performance?

Creme: At least early, Watkins appeared more patient than she was at the end of last season. Iriafen is clearly a teammate she trusts; it was clear Watkins was OK deferring some of the offensive load. Watkins’ 19 field goal attempts were three fewer than she averaged a year ago, and she once again impressively drew fouls, shooting 10-of-12 from the free throw line. But nine turnovers are obviously a problem. It’s especially concerning because Watkins wasn’t handling the ball as much as she typically did in later stages of last season. That said, her overall line was still an outstanding way to begin the new season.

Philippou: The vision for this USC team is for Watkins to have more help around her so she doesn’t have to do as much as she did last year. That didn’t come into fruition on Monday with Watkins, Iriafen and Smith combining for all but seven of the Trojans’ points and the offense sputtering. As others around Watkins get more comfortable, that should lessen the load on their star sophomore, and allow her to exert herself more on the defensive end and shine as a passer. We saw some great flashes of that against Ole Miss with her 5 blocks (tying a career high), 3 steals and 4 assists.

What is the biggest concern for USC moving forward?

Creme: The Trojans need better point guard play to relieve the burden for Watkins. They need her coming off screens, not initiating offense. That means von Oelhoffen will have to be better — she needs to stay out of foul trouble (four fouls Monday), be more involved and be more aggressive. Scoring her first (and only) points with 21 seconds left can’t be the norm.

Gottlieb used sophomore Maila Samuels for seven minutes at the point to try to generate a spark. And Heckel got some time there as well. Neither seems ready to contribute in big games just yet. But perhaps a bigger worry is that Marshall, the most tenured player as a Trojan, didn’t score and took one shot in 34 minutes. The 6-foot-4 senior is a career 11.4 PPG scorer.

Philippou: Gottlieb said USC wasn’t able to play in flow and with freedom offensively, instead allowing Ole Miss’ pressure to dictate the game. The turnovers (26, four more than their made field goals) were the biggest red flag, as was their abysmal 3-point shooting (Gottlieb insisted her team is a better deep shooting team than that). It’s a small miracle they won considering they shot 1-for-9 from the field in the fourth and Watkins managed two points in the final seven minutes.

Ole Miss-esque defenses aren’t something the Trojans should have to worry about in the Big Ten, but the Trojans still have to ensure they can deal with that sort of pressure come March.

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