A slow start doomed the Hawkeyes from the opening tip, as they drop their first game in Big Ten play.
After losing to Michigan and Michigan State by a combined 12 points, USC was ready to take its anger out on someone.
That someone happened to be the No. 8 Iowa women's basketball team, which was overwhelmed by the Trojans from the start, eventually falling in an 81-69 upset in Los Angeles on Thursday evening.
The loss ends Iowa's perfect reign in Big Ten play and makes Sunday's showdown at No. 2 UCLA even more important.
Here are three observations from the Hawkeyes' loss.
Early turnovers doom Iowa
Iowa finished the game with a modest 13 turnovers, but seven of those came in the first quarter. The Hawkeyes looked out of sorts from the opening tip, and that sluggish play allowed the Trojans to build a 10-2 lead before anyone had broken a sweat.
USC's game plan was to keep the ball outside of the hands of Iowa's star post players - Hannah Stuelke and Ava Heiden - and the strategy worked to perfection. Playing in the post is one of the main focal points of a Jan Jensen-coached offense, but the Trojans were consistently denying some of those entry passes in the first, which led to easy transition buckets on the other end. Without an inside game, Iowa's offense cratered into a two-minute scoring drought, allowing USC to build a 28-13 lead after one.
Give Iowa credit for committing just six turnovers over the final three frames, but when Jensen and the team looks back at this tape, they're probably going to point towards the poor first quarter as one of the primary factors in this defeat.
Iowa struggled to contain USC's stars
Even though JuJu Watkins remains sidelined for the entire season with an ACL injury, her short-handed teammates came through on this night. USC came into this game averaging a measly 40.3 percent from the floor, but the Hawkeyes had few answers for the quartet of Londynn Jones, Kara Dunn, Kennedy Smith, and Jazzy Davidson.
Davidson leads the Trojans in nearly every statistical category this season, and she finished with 21 on Thursday, but the real nail in Iowa's coffin was Dunn. The senior has been a key sidekick to Davidson all season long, and the Hawkeyes couldn't stop her on Thursday.
Dunn finished with a game-high 25 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists on 8/14 shooting, her seventh consecutive game with 20 or more points.
Young guns shine
If there's one positive thing Jensen took away from this loss, it was the strong play of her underclassmen. Seniors Kylie Feuerbach and Hannah Stuelke went down with foul trouble early, which paved the way for Taylor Stremlow and Journey Houston to replace them.
Both filled their roles admirably. Stremlow recorded all 11 of her points in the first half and was instrumental in helping Iowa trim USC's lead down to six at the break, while Houston finished as Iowa's leading scorer with 16 points and tied Ava Heiden with eight rebounds. Heiden also continued her strong sophomore campaign, collecting 13 points on 6/11 shooting.
There's no question that Jensen and her staff were frustrated with the defeat, but seeing the young stars improve each night is a good sign for the Hawkeyes in the long run.
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