Ryan Kartje (LA Times)  —  SPOKANE, Wash. — The answers had run out. The worst case had caught up to USC.

There was no more outrunning the reality that loomed over this entire NCAA tournament, not with Paige Bueckers at the height of her powers and the full weight of the Connecticut onslaught raining down on them. Without JuJu Watkins, there was no further the Trojans could go. And once again, it was the Huskies who slammed the door, ending USC’s season in the Elite Eight once again with a 78-64 victory, just like they had last March.

That their season ended in the exact same place, on the doorstep of their first Final Four in almost four decades, was no less painful to swallow for the Trojans, who will have to watch their crosstown rivals, UCLA, take on Connecticut next weekend with a national title berth on the line.

But as she stood in front of her players, warding off tears, coach Lindsay Gottlieb harkened back to the speech she made in the losing locker room a year before.

She told them then that the standard had been raised at USC. Expectations would soon be soaring. It was up to them to meet them.

Her words proved prescient, as this season proved an entirely different challenge. And although on paper, it might seem that the program came no further, Gottlieb, at the end of her fourth campaign as coach, knew that wasn’t true.

“Even though we’ve lost at the same point and stage, I think our team 100% delivered on raising that bar and raising that standard,” Gottlieb said. “This is where we wanted to be, and we now feel disappointed that we didn’t take this step this year, but obviously there are circumstances that make it really hard at this stage to win this one. This was the hardest one to win.”

USC forward Kiki Iriafen shoots over Connecticut forward Sarah Strong during the first half Monday. (Jenny Kane / AP)

A season-ending injury to Watkins one week earlier made those circumstances exponentially more difficult. Still, at every turn through this tournament, the Trojans seemed to find an answer for their superstar’s absence, scratching and clawing their way through two rounds. In the round of 32, it was Kiki Iriafen who came alive in her stead. In the Sweet 16, it was a pair of freshmen in Avery Howell and Kennedy Smith who rose to the occasion.

On Monday, that spotlight was fittingly reserved for Rayah Marshall, the senior forward who signed with Gottlieb and USC well before back-to-back Elite Eight runs felt within reach. In Marshall’s first season, USC finished a mere 12-16. But Gottlieb promised Marshall then that someday, they would look back on those lean years from the mountaintop.

By the end of her senior season, the Trojans were right where Gottlieb promised, and so much of that was on account of Marshall, whose teammates unanimously describe her as the program’s “heart and soul”. She played that part arguably as well as she ever has Monday, finishing with 23 points — her third-most ever at USC — and 15 rebounds.

USC center Rayah Marshall grabs a rebound during the first half against UConn on Monday. (Young Kwak / AP)

When Connecticut’s lead ballooned to 19 points in the third quarter, it was Marshall who rallied the team to keep the faith, her teammates said. USC proceeded to finish the quarter on a 9-0 run, cutting the Connecticut lead to just five.

“She gave this game everything she had,” point guard Talia von Oelhoffen said.

But with Watkins at home, watching on TV, and her Funko Pop figurine placed the on sideline reminding everyone of her absence, the Trojans’ gutsy run through the tournament will forever be tinged with questions of what could have been.

“UConn made it hard on us,” Gottlieb said. “We were still getting used to not having someone on the floor that can draw three people all of a sudden.”

In December, USC bested the Huskies on their own home court. But the Trojans had their star then — Watkins led all scorers with 25 points — and the Huskies lost just one more game leading up to Monday.

USC was no slouch through that stretch, either. The Trojans’ 31 wins this season would tie the 1985-86 team, which lost in the national title game, and the 1982-83 team, which won, for the most in school history. With that came a certain confidence that even Watkins’ injury couldn’t shake.

“We still had our hopes on a national championship,” Iriafen said. “We never had doubt. Our confidence never wavered.”

But belief could only carry them so far. Especially as all that seemed to work in the second round and Sweet 16 suddenly didn’t. After feeding her early in the paint, Iriafen struggled over the final three quarters, scoring just 10 points on three-of-15 shooting from the field. The freshmen took their lumps, too, as Smith and Howell combined to shoot four of 15.

For a while, the Trojans were able to slow Bueckers, who scored 40 in her previous outing, by chasing her with Smith, their most tenacious on-ball defender. Freshman Sarah Strong would step up in her place for the Huskies, scoring 10 of their first 12. She finished with 22 points and 17 rebounds, strikingly similar to her stat line in the December matchup.

“I give a lot of credit to USC for what they were able to do, given what they had to endure with JuJu,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Unfortunately, some stuff catches up to you because at this point in the year, somebody like JuJu would have been needed to carry them over the hump. Like, we have Paige.”

Whatever answers Gottlieb conjured to keep Bueckers (5) at bay were moot before long. When the final buzzer sounded, her stat line — 31 points, six assists, four steals — looked even more impressive than it did last season.

“She was just getting to her spots,” Smith said, her eyes welling with tears. “That’s on our end. That’s us not really following our assignment.”

To that point, so very little in this tournament went according to plan for Gottlieb and her Trojans, starting with the cruelest twist of fate the basketball gods could draw up. Still, as others crossed them off, they kept the faith.

To their coach, that meant something.

“It was only tonight a week ago that one of the best players in college basketball went down,” Gottlieb said, “and I’m just so proud of the way that everyone rallied.”

Because even without superstar JuJu Watkins, the fact remains: USC finished as one of the best eight teams in the nation before bowing out Monday.

At home, Watkins shared her thoughts in a post on Instagram: “Thank you all for the incredible love and support,” she wrote, “… y’all have given me so much hope.

“Right now, my heart is with my teammates – I wish I could have been out there battling, but I couldn’t be prouder of the fight we’ve fought together.”

latimes.com

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