It was just 257 days ago that the UConn and University of Southern California women’s basketball teams went head-to-head.
That was March 31st of this year, when the squads faced each other in the Elite 8 in Spokane, Wash. The matchup ended with a 31-point performance by Paige Bueckers, which propelled the Huskies to a 78-64 win against the Trojans, and sent Connecticut to their 24th Final Four appearance.
Now, both squads are set to face each other again this Saturday night in Los Angeles. However, things will look a little different for both teams heading into this matchup.
For starters, UConn had a key departure in Bueckers, who graduated from the program and joined the WNBA. In addition, the Huskies have a bit of a shuffled roster this season, with players like Blanca Quiñonez and Serah Williams added to the frontcourt lineup. In the backcourt, the Huskies now also have Kayleigh Heckel, a transfer out of USC.
Heckel, who’s averaged seven points per game in her first nine games as a Husky, will be on a different bench this time around. Instead of wearing cardinal and gold, the New York native will be sporting navy blue and white.
“I’m just trying to think about it as a regular game, so it’s not really anything different going into it.” Heckel said on Sunday evening after UConn’s 102-35 win over DePaul.
Just like the last matchup in March, when JuJu Watkins, the 2025 National Player of the Year, was dealing with an ACL tear and missed the Elite 8 game between the Trojans and the Huskies, Watkins will miss this matchup as well, due to the same injury.
Even with the loss of an integral player like Watkins, the Trojans have not been showing any signs of struggle, especially with freshman Jazzy Davidson on this year’s roster. Standing at 6-foot-1, the guard leads USC with an average of 16 points per game and is shooting an average of 42% from the field.
“You get a freshman that comes in and kind of leads them in just about everything. You know she’s gonna have a big impact.” Head coach Geno Auriemma said to the media Friday afternoon regarding Davidson, “She really has stamped herself on that team and she’s probably the best freshman in the country at this point.”
Auriemma told the media that he compares Davidson to UConn’s Sarah Strong in terms of how well she’s adapted to collegiate play.
The Trojans come this weekend with a 7-2 overall record, their two losses of the season being down-to-the-wire matchups against No. 2 South Carolina and No. 24 Notre Dame.
The Huskies, though, are still undefeated with a record of 9-0.
“You want to win every game you play, obviously, but you want to get better each game that you play, and I think we have.” Auriemma said, “We’ve improved from the Louisville game; we’re starting to get a little bit of an identity and a sense of who we are.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. from the Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif. Husky fans can tune in to this matchup on Fox or listen in on 97.9 FM from Learfield.