That’s impressive enough on its own. USC’s Mackenzie Forbes led the Trojans to an 85-77 win over Long Beach State on Thursday, keeping the Trojan women’s team undefeated at 10-0 on the season. Forbes scored 36 points when superstar JuJu Watkins, star guard Rayah Marshall and valuable role player Kaitlyn Davis were all unavailable.
When the team’s three best players are out, a role player steps up, scores 36 points, and leads the team to a road victory? This in itself is mind-boggling. Forbes’ performance, without any additional detail or context, was and is utterly stunning and truly spectacular.
How can we get better? How did this extraordinary performance become even more special or iconic?
Guess what: Mackenzie Forbes came down with the flu during this game. Yes. that’s right. This is her flu game. This is her Michael Jordan moment.
Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the Los Angeles Times reported the incident, which prompted an immediate reaction from USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb.
“Kenzie’s flu game is something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life,” Gottlieb said. “What a warrior.”
A team-first player, Forbes focused on how her teammates held together without three stars missing:
“This is a huge honor for this group,” Forbes said. “We came out and got it done, but left out a lot of important pieces.”
Forbes is humble. This was her flu game, reminiscent of Michael Jordan’s flu game in the 1997 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz. Jordan’s memorable performance helped the Bulls win in Game 5 and helped Chicago win the NBA championship in six games.
Mackenzie Forbes didn’t play in the NBA Finals, but no one at USC will forget what she did Thursday.
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