SPOKANE, Wash. — Of all the teams remaining in the Sweet 16 this weekend, no team had more questions around it than No. 1 USC. The Trojans had lost their star JuJu Watkins to a season-ending ACL injury in the second round and then rallied to beat Mississippi State at home. But how would they respond in an Elite Eight atmosphere on the road?

Of all the other teams with the most questions, it had to be Kansas State, the Trojans’ opponent in the Sweet 16. The Wildcats, a veteran team, had played most of their season without 6-foot-6 center Ayoka Lee, and the committee had judged the team’s body of work that had largely been made without Lee. Then, ahead of the postseason, Lee announced she was 100 percent and ready to go.

Watkins’ absence and Lee’s presence made this No. 1-No. 5 matchup one of the biggest toss-ups of the third round (though the USC team did keep a Watkins Funko Pop on its sideline through the entire game).

With a Trojans rotation relying heavily on three freshmen who had never been in a postseason experience like this before, USC held off Kansas State 67-61 and advanced to the Elite Eight to face UConn, setting up a rematch of the Elite Eight from last season. Though Watkins’ absence has been the overriding storyline of this team coming into the Sweet 16, coming out of the game, the brightest star is that Lindsay Gottlieb’s trio of USC freshmen stepped up at the most important time to punch the Trojans’ ticket to their second consecutive Elite Eight appearance and the eighth in program history.

“It’s not supposed to be easy, and it wasn’t easy,” Gottlieb said. “Really pleased, but not surprised. I knew we’d come out and compete.

“There’s so much love for JuJu in our program; everyone values her and knows nobody’s like her, and we’ve kept her close. But I don’t think we’ve ever had this feeling of now, ‘Oh, no, all of our goals are gone.’ And neither has JuJu.”

Watkins, who watched the game from Los Angeles, FaceTimed the team in the locker room to celebrate.

“We know that she’s back home supporting us, having a watch party,” freshman guard Avery Howell said. “Doing everything she can to give us that good ‘JuJu,’ you could say.”

Kennedy Smith steps up as Trojans’ leading scorer

It was presumed heading into Saturday that star forward Kiki Iriafen would need to carry the load in Watkins’ absence. Iriafen entered the weekend averaging 18.6 points per game and surely became the focal point of Kansas State’s scouting report.

But it was star freshman guard Kennedy Smith, a five-star prospect in the Class of 2024, who stepped up to take the lion’s share of touches and lead the Trojans with 19 points, which tied a career high. Smith, who has scored 29 combined points in her last two outings, shot 50 percent from the field and gave USC a huge spark early with an 11-point first quarter.

“What can I say about our freshman class?” Gottlieb said. “They’re winners above everything else. I got a text here that said, ‘Kennedy F-ing Smith,’ and I said, ‘Can I say that in the media?’”

Smith credited her playing days at Etiwanda (Calif.) High — where she was the nation’s No. 6 prospect in her class — for preparing her for a moment like Saturday’s and echoed Gottlieb’s sentiment that the goal of winning a national championship has not changed for the Trojans.

Considering Iriafen had a slower night by her standards — scoring just 7 points compared with her usual 18-plus — it was Smith who undoubtedly helped get the Trojans over the hump.

“We recruited this group to play,” Gottlieb said of her seven freshmen. “We’ve had a belief in what the team can do, and I think above all else, we recruited winners.”

Avery Howell rises to the occasion

Howell, the true freshman guard, entered Saturday with arguably the biggest task of anyone left in the tournament: replacing Watkins in USC’s starting lineup. Howell, the nation’s No. 16 prospect and a five-star in the Class of 2024 by ESPN, entered Saturday averaging 7.1 points in 19.9 minutes of action per game. Saturday marked just the second start of her career.

But give the Idaho native her flowers. In a performance her teammates won’t soon forget, Howell scored 18 points in 37 minutes, in addition to hauling in eight rebounds. Both tied career highs. This, on the heels of pouring in 18 points against Mississippi State in the aftermath of Watkins’ injury.

“I think coming here, we knew that there was going to be that level that we had to get to, and our coaches have let us grow into those roles, and we’ve had a lot of people help us,” Howell said. “Us freshmen, especially, have been able to be in these situations because of our coaching staff letting us play in games and letting us get those reps.”

There is no replacing Watkins for the Trojans, who will have to make up for her absence by committee. But on a day when USC needed everything it could get from everyone on the floor, Howell’s stepping up to the plate couldn’t have come at a better time. She hit two crucial free throws with 32 seconds remaining to put USC up four points and was critical in keeping her teammates composed down the stretch.

That she is just a true freshman should be all the more encouraging for Gottlieb, who already sang the praises of her rookies earlier this week. The Trojans will need everything they can get out of Howell again Monday, when UConn awaits with a Final Four berth on the line.

“They’re a great team,” Howell said. “So it’s gonna be a tough game, but I think we’re gonna enjoy this one right now, but then it’s back to business.”

AVES CLOSES OUT THE FIRST WITH A TRIPLE.

USC’s tested duo contains Ayoka Lee

Without Lee through most of the season, the Wildcats still found success through their guard-heavy offense as an elite 3-point shooting team (knocking down 39 percent of their attempts), sharing the ball well (leading the nation in assist percentage) and not giving away possessions.

Though Lee presented obvious issues for the Trojans’ offense because of how talented she is as a rim protector and shot blocker, a big question was how she would alter Kansas State’s offense and what USC could do to neutralize her effect as perimeter defenders continued to try to corral shooters.

The Trojans’ strategy wasn’t a huge surprise considering they had faced a talented 6-foot-7 center in Lauren Betts three times during the regular season, beating the Bruins twice. Against Kansas State, USC did just that — employing Rayah Marshall (6 feet 4) and Clarice Akunwafo (6 feet 6) to do the heavy lifting on the Lee defensive assignment.

Lee still scored 12 points, but it wasn’t an efficient night for her as it took 13 field goal attempts to get there, and the Marshall-Akunwafo combo was able to contain her impact early, holding her to just two first-half points.

Lee also totaled 10 rebounds but held her to just two offensive boards, limiting the Wildcats’ second-chance points, where the Trojans ultimately held the advantage (10-6).

“We just came up on the short end,” head coach Jeff Mittie said. “Congrats to USC. Obviously, they had to fight through some things, and I thought they made a couple more plays than we did.”