The defensive numbers produced by USC women’s basketball are simply off the charts. It’s hard to wrap the mind around how good this defense is. Throwing a shutout at the Washington Huskies in overtime of Sunday’s 63-54 win is very impressive, but some of the statistics which flowed from that victory are eye-popping.
USC created 22 Washington turnovers in the game while allowing just five free throw attempts to the Huskies. Keep in mind that since the game went into overtime, USC allowed five free throw attempts in 45 minutes, not 40. That’s one free throw attempt every nine scoreboard-clock minutes.
This marked the second straight game in which USC allowed only five free throws to its opponent. The Trojans did the same thing on Friday against Washington State. They forced 18 turnovers in that game.
One week earlier, USC allowed only 10 free throws to Stanford while earning 26 attempts of their own. USC was plus-nine in free throw makes in a game it won 55-46.
Seems significant, right?
The Trojans forced 14 turnovers against Stanford. If you’re following the numbers, you will see that in each of its last three games, USC women’s basketball is creating turnovers far more frequently than it is allowing free throw attempts.
Cumulatively, USC has allowed 20 free throw attempts in the last three games while forcing 54 turnovers. That’s nearly a 3-to-1 ratio.
No wonder USC is winning games despite its own turnover problems (20 against Washington) and low shooting percentages (27 against Stanford, 37 against Washington State). If a defense is going to force turnovers nearly three times as often as it allows a free throw attempt, it is going to be very hard to beat that team, even if its offense is noticeably flawed.
The rest of the Pac-12 is learning that about USC. Lindsay Gottlieb and Beth Burns have built quite a defense.
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