How good is the fourth-ranked USC women’s basketball team? Consider: Wednesday night at USC the Gophers — particularly Amaya Battle — did a very good job against Trojans player-of-the-year candidate Juju Watkins for much of the game.

In its most difficult game of the season so far, the Gophers’ women’s basketball team fell into a quick hole and never really recovered in a 82-69 loss to fourth-ranked Southern California late Thursday at Galen Center in Los Angeles.

The Gophers’ women’s basketball team has established a strong position to end its six-year NCAA tournament drought heading into the second half of the Big Ten Conference schedule. But up next is No. 4 Southern California on Thursday and No.