On Saturday, the USC women’s basketball team defeated Clemson 71-67 in overtime in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. With the victory, the Trojans advanced to the second round of the tournament for the third consecutive year.
Following the game, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb discussed her team’s performance.
“That was a great NCAA Tournament game,” Gottlieb said. “First off, the work that Coach [Shawn] Poppie has done at Clemson to get them back in the tournament — we knew they were a good team and it would be a battle.
“For us, it was a real culture win. We played our tails off on defense the whole game . . . really excited to still be playing.”
Gottlieb certainly deserves a lot of credit for the victory. While this season has certainly not gone as the Trojans would have hoped, the fact that USC was able win an overtime NCAA Tournament game without Juju Watkins speaks volumes about the culture of the program.
Up next is a date with No. 1 seed South Carolina on Monday night. Gottlieb and company will be heavy underdogs in that game. Can they pull off a shocker?
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Lindsay Gottlieb discusses USC’s NCAA Tournament victory over Clemson
Reporting by Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
