Basketball All-Americans, football continues, more

Here is your USC sports recap for October 23, 2024.

With the college basketball season just around the corner, preseason awards are being handed out. This week, two members of the USC women’s basketball team were named preseason All-Americans.

Juju Watkins, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard, and Kiki Iriafen, a 6-foot-3 forward, were both named to the Associated Press preseason All-American team. They are the first teammates to be named preseason All-Americans since the 2017-18 season.

Watkins returns to USC after a standout freshman season. She was a first-team All-American last season after averaging 27.1 points per game.

Iriafen is now a transfer from Stanford. She was an honorable mention All-American last season and averaged 19.4 points and 11.0 rebounds per game a season ago.

The USC women open the 2024-25 season on November 4 in Paris, France when they face Ole Miss in an Aflac Oui Play game at Adidas Arena.

On Sunday, the No. 9 USC football team earned its second straight victory over a ranked team by defeating No. 16 Penn State. The 2-1 win came in dramatic fashion.

With the game tied in the 90th minute, Helena Sampaio scored the decisive goal from a free kick, giving her team victory. With this result, USC improved to 13-1-2 overall and 9-0-1 in Big Ten play, placing first in the league.

In the first half, Aaliyah Farmer scored the first goal, giving USC the lead in the 23rd minute. For the rest of the game it almost seemed like this goal would make the difference.

However, the Nittany Lions equalized in the 88th minute of the game. Luckily, Sampaio was able to play the role of hero just moments later. For her efforts, she was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.

The Trojans next return Sunday in the regular-season finale. They will face No. 8 UCLA at the main stadium at Dignity Sports Health Park.

This week, the No. 16 USC volleyball team will host two home games. On Thursday, the Trojans face Michigan State, a team that is just 7-12 overall and 0-8 in Big Ten play. Then, on Saturday, they face a much tougher test when they face No. 3 Penn State, which is 18-1 overall and 8-0 in conference play.

The Trojans have won nine straight home games. They are 14-4 overall and 6-2 in the Big Ten. Both games begin at 8:00 p.m. Central and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

This past weekend, the USC men’s golf team had a nice performance at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate. By placing fifth out of 14 teams, the Trojans managed to secure their third top-five finish of the fall season.

“We prepared really well for the tournament and the golf course. From the moment we landed to the last putt, it was a lot for us to get used to because Georgia didn’t resemble California or Dallas, our last tournament,” said head coach Mark Hankins. “We prevailed and played three really good rounds; The strength of the team was clear to see and to hit three rounds under par on this course is really solid. We had four players ranked in the top 30, just a really good week for our program.”

Gavin Aurilia led USC at three under par. This result was enough for 15th place overall in the individual ranking.

This was the final event of the fall season for the Trojans. They will begin the spring portion of the program in late January at the Southwestern Invitational in Lake Sherwood, California.