It's been clear all season that for as deep as this USC women's basketball team is, it was built around the incredible one-two combo of JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen.

One of those two -- most often Watkins, the consensus first-team All-American and United States Basketball Writers Association national player of the year -- led the team in scoring in all but one game before Saturday. When she went down with a torn ACL on Monday night, it was Iriafen, the third-team All-American, who rose up with her best game of the season to lead the way.

But coach Lindsay Gottlieb has also been clear from the start with her loaded freshman class that this was their time too and they were very much a factor in the sky-high potential of this team.

Never was that truer than Saturday night.

With Watkins watching from home and Iriafen struggling through a rare off-shooting night, the freshmen led the way to send No. 1-seeded USC to a 67-61 win over No. 5-seed Kansas State and back into the Elite Eight for the second straight season.

The Trojans (31-3) now get an Elite Eight rematch with UConn (34-3) in Spokane, Washington, on Monday night.

Thanks in large part to freshmen Kennedy Smith (19 points and 3 steals), Avery Howell (18 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals) and Kayleigh Heckel (8 points), while veteran center Rayah Marshall chipped in 10 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks.

"What can I say about our freshman class? They're winners above everything else," Gottlieb said. "I got a text here that said 'Kennedy Effing Smith' and I was like, 'Can I say that in the media?' ... They're incredibly tough and they are winners, and that's what I told them before the game and they earned every bit of it."

Coming off a 36-point performance last game, Iriafen hit just 3 of 13 shots to finish with 7 points and 8 rebounds.

USC trailed 30-28 at halftime and 39-34 midway through the third quarter before Howell hit a 3-pointer to kickoff a 12-0 run in which she had 5 points and Iriafen had 4 of her points in that spurt while Smith capped it with a steal and fastbreak score.

"We recruited this group to play, and I remember getting on a Zoom with the families -- seven [freshmen] players and their families heading into before they came over the summer -- and I said, 'Look, we went to the Elight Eight. Now, the bar's been raised. The bar's been raised for our returners and the bar's been raised for the expectations of people coming in, the bar's raised for whoever we go at in the portal,' and we've never shied away from these being the goals," Gottlieb said. "... I think above all else we recruited winners. I do think these guys came because they were attracted to this idea of a competitive mindset and playing with other really good players in big-time games with championships on the line."

The Trojans couldn't put the Wildcats (28-8) away until the very end, though.

K-State's Ayoka Lee tied the game at 51-51 a few minutes into the fourth quarter before Marshall answered with the next four points, including an offensive rebound and second-chance score.

The teams kept trading scores, though, and Serena Sundell's layup with 3:04 remaining cut the USC lead to 60-59.

Smith got to the line for two made free throws, then stole the ball back and made one of two at the foul line to make it 63-59 with 1:36 remaining.

A Sundell jumper for K-State and misses on both sides left it 63-61 when the Wildcats fouled Howell with 32 seconds on the clock despite their coach screaming from the sidelines not to foul. Howell hit both free throws, and Lee then fouled Iriafen trying to position for a rebound that never came on the second made foul shot.

That sent Iriafen to the line, but she missed both attempts to keep it a 65-61 game. K-State would miss its final four shots, though as the Trojans could finally exhale.

"I'm really proud of our team's fight and togetherness and finding a way to win. It's not supposed to be easy, and it wasn't easy," Gottlieb said.

USC won despite shooting 38.5-percent from the field, but the Trojans turned the ball over just 9 times while forcing 16 K-State turnovers and holding the Wildcats to just 5 of 16 on 3-pointers.

The players talked to Watkins on the phone before the game and all entered the arena wearing shirts with her face on it. Watkins' absence maintained its own presence all game, of course, but it never overwhelmed or overshadowed the Trojans on the court.

"Having a sense of togetherness, that's something we emphasized even coming in in the summer. Our chemistry on and off the court has been great. Just navigating from there, I think everyone on this team has value and brings something to the table so I think everybody stepped up today," Smith said.

"I never had any doubt in this team. I think everybody still had the common goal of winning a national championship, so just coming in and playing with heart grit and fight from the beginning to the end."

Howell reiterated that point.

"We're so deep on this team and everyone plays such a valuable role that if someone's not hitting we have someone else to rely on, so I just think it falls back to the preparation, the work we've been doing all season," she said.

"We have [Watkins] in our thoughts and we're supporting her from here and we're taking her competitive nature onto the court with us every single time we step there, and we know she's back home supporting us, having a watch party, doing everything she can to give us that good JuJu, you could say."

The road only gets tougher from here, though, as USC now gets a much-anticipated rematch with UConn.

The Huskies ended USC's season last year, 80-73, in the Elite Eight, while the Trojans won a regular-season meeting back in December, 72-70. Gottlieb was vocally miffed that the NCAA selection committee put the two teams in the same corner of the bracket despite that regular-season meeting, and now it's here -- with the dynamics far different than she or anyone could have imagined with Watkins watching from home.

"Our players, I've been really proud of them. There's so much love for JuJu in our program and everyone values her and knows nobody's like her and we've kind of kept her close, but I don't think we've ever had this feeling of 'Oh, no, all of our goals are gone.' And neither has JuJu," Gottlieb said.