# 7 USC women bounce off of loss, Rout Wisconsin – San Bernardino County Sun

By Steve Megargi AP sports writer

Madison, wis. – The USC women’s basketball team regrouped before leaving the Midwest and heading home.

Kiki Iriafen scored 15 points to lead a balanced attack, as the seven-ranked Trojans bounced off a rare loss and never gave up 86-64 win over Wisconsin on Wednesday night.

USC (20-2 as a whole, 10-1 Big Ten), which had 17 thefts while forcing 24 Wisconsin turnover, ended a trip with two games after its winning series of 15 matches ended on Sunday with a loss of 76-69 in Iowa.

USC Juju Watkins, which came into the game on average by 24.7 points to rank third in Division I, was detained until low seasons in 26 minutes. Avery Howel also scored 14, Thalia von Oelhofen had 11, and Kaylee Hakel added 10.

After shooting at low 35.4% of the floor against Iowa, USC returned on Wednesday, firing by 50.7%.

Sera Williams scored 19 points, and Carter McCra and Tess Mayers added 12 for Wisconsin (11-12, 2-10) that lost for the 10th time in 11 games to fall under .500 for the first time this season S

Williams, the third leading goal scorer of the big ten behind Watkins and Lauren Bets of UCLA, did everything possible to maintain Wisconsin’s competitiveness. After shooting 0 for 7 in the first seven minutes, she was 8 for 13 the rest of the road.

After lagging 13-3 early, Wisconsin lags only 23-20 behind, when Ronnie Porter missed a potential binding 3-indicator with less than four minutes in the second quarter. This is as close as the badgers would receive.

Watkins made the first basket of the game, but did not score more than 18 minutes again. She scored five points during the 10-4 run in the last 1:39 of the second quarter to give a USC 39-28 lead.