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After starting the season 3-0, the USC women's hoops team has dropped a pair of games to ranked opponents. The Women of Troy turned the ball over 41 times in blowout losses to No. 20 Oklahoma State and No. 17 South Carolina.
No. 20 Oklahoma State 82, USC 51
The Good:
- Alabama transfer and former top five recruit Kaneisha Horn made her USC debut. She will add extra depth to the Women of Troy frontcourt.
- Freshman point guard Courtney Jaco finished with six points, knocking down a pair of three-pointers (2-of-3). She also did not have any turnovers in 13 minutes.
The Bad:
- The Trojans were only 4-for-18 from beyond the three-point line with Ariya Crook accounting for half those attempts and makes.
- Cassie Harberts was in foul trouble for much of the game and finished with only eight points (3-of-6) and four rebounds.
- Horn's debut wasn't anything to write home about. She did not have a field goal, managing three points from the free throw line. Horn also had three rebounds, three assists, but also three turnovers.
The Ugly:
- Oklahoma State started the game with a 20-4 advantage and then added a 12-0 run in the first half to put the Women of Troy down by as many as 26 before halftime.
- Assist-to-turnover ratio: 11 assists, 19 turnovers.
- USC shot only 33 percent (18-for-54) while Oklahoma State was at 52 percent (31-for-60).
No. 17 South Carolina 70, USC 50
The Goodish:
- Ariya Crook has led the team in scoring in all five games. She carried the team in the first half scoring 12 of the team's 24 points. However, she managed only four second half points and was 0-for-4 from deep in the game.
- Jordan Adams did a good job distributing the ball with four assists (to two turnovers) and had four rebounds and three steals. But the Trojans needs her to knock down some open jumpers. She was 0-for-4 from deep and is now just 1-for-11 on the season.
The Bad:
- The Trojans haven't been able to score consistently enough on offense to keep teams from making long runs. The Women of Troy took an 12-11 lead with 12:38 to go in the first half, but South Carolina was able to go on an 11-2 run as USC went nearly eight minutes with only one field goal. During the Gamecocks run, USC turned the ball over SEVEN times!
- The Gamecocks also started the second half on an 11-2 run that pushed a manageable six-point halftime deficit to 15 -- and the Women of Troy would never trim the lead back to single digits.
- Assist-to-turnover ratio: 12 assists, 22 turnovers.
The Ugly:
- After averaging 18.0 points and 8.2 rebounds per game last season, senior Cassie Harberts is off to a very slow start this year. Through the first five games, she is only scoring 11.0 points and grabbing 5.8 rebounds. While she is playing almost six less minutes, she is only taking 1.3 less shots per game. Harberts is shooting 7 percent worse from the field, but the biggest difference has been her inability to get to the free throw line with as much consistency as she did last season. After getting to the line a USC record 298 times last season, Harberts free throw attempts per game are down from 9.6 to 5.4. And it doesn't help that she's only shooting 48 percent from the charity stripe after being a 70 percent shooter last season.
On Monday, Harberts scored only two points in the first half on two field goal attempts. Cynthia Cooper-Dyke has to find a way to get her senior star more involved in the offense, especially early in the game. Harberts did finish with 14 points, but she only had two rebounds and missed all three of her free throw attempts. - USC was only 1-for-11 from three-point range...with the lone bucket coming from forward Alexyz Vaioletama. The guards have to knock down some shots to spread the court and help out Harberts.