Oregon State Women’s Basketball: Opponent Preview - USC

The 12th ranked Oregon State Beavers Women’s basketball team looks to take on the USC Trojans in game 28 of the season. Tip-off is slated for 6 PM PST on Friday, February 22nd. You can watch the game in person at Gill Coliseum, on the PAC-12 Network, or check out the team’s Twitter page for other ways to follow along live. Let’s take a closer look at the Trojans.

USC (15-10 overall, 5-9 conference)

Last season: 20-11 overall, 9-9 in PAC-12 (7th), no postseason

After these teams last met, a 24-point win for Oregon State on January 13th, USC was 0-5 to start conference play. Since then, the Trojans have gone 5-4 with significant wins against UCLA, Utah, and California. Eight of those nine contests ended with point margins of 10 or less, with the one exception being a fifteen point win against the Washington Huskies. In their last game, they were up by ten at the half against Stanford, but ultimately lost by two.

While the Beavers easily dispatched the Trojans last month in the second half of their matchup, I feel inclined to remind people that USC is still a team that should not be taken lightly. Oregon State has lost to USC once in each of the past two seasons, thanks to 47 combined turnovers. They have the kind of athletes that can rack of steals and get the Beavers’ offense out of rhythm.

Who to watch

#3 - Minyon Moore, Junior Guard

Since her 21 point performance against the Beavers, the younger Moore sister has continued to pace this team. She is averaging just over three assists over the last nine games while averaging 16.8 points per contest. The Trojan leader appears to be fully healthy since returning to the lineup against the Beavers last month, averaging over 37 minutes played per game despite missing two games this year.

#4 - Mariya Moore, Senior Guard

The elder Moore and former Louisville Cardinal is the only Trojan to have played and started every game this year. In their upset win at Utah, the former All-ACC team member racked up 22 points, seven rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Let’s hope she has a performance more like the one she had against the Beavers last where she went 2-of-14 shooting.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

#21 - Aliyah Mazyck, Senior Guard

Mazyck has bumped her scoring average by 2.5 points over the last nine games. In three of those games she scored at least 26 points. Like Minyon Moore, she has a been on a tear with steals, averaging nearly three per game. Last time out, the Beavers were able to keep the streaky shooter under wraps, holding her to under 20%.

Prediction

Like I’ve said previously, USC is one of those athletic teams that can give Oregon State fits if they can’t protect the ball. While the win over Oregon on Monday was nice, the Beavers still coughed up the ball 15 times. I still feel confident they win this one, but I expect it might be a little closer than the first one base on how the Trojans have been playing as of late. Beavers start to build some momentum going into their final three games of conference play.