The UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team has been nearly unbeatable this season, with the exception of one opponent. That opponent is USC. Last Saturday night before a sellout out crowd of 13,659 rabid fans at Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus, the USC Trojans easily defeated the Bruins, 80-67, clinching the regular season Big Ten conference title.
The victory was the fourth consecutive win over the Bruins for the Trojans and the Trojans first victory at Pauley Pavilion since January 20, 2019. USC led from start to finish, taking a 9-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game and never giving the lead up, despite the effort of the fans to will their Bruins to victory.
The Bruins got to within three points at the end of the first quarter, and to within four points late in the third quarter. Both times the Trojans answered with a run of their own, stretching the lead back to double digits. USC extended the lead to 20 points with 6:30 remaining and the Trojan celebration was on.
Once again, the Bruins had no answer for guard JuJu Watkins, who led USC to a 46-32 halftime lead, scoring 23 of the 46 points. Watkins torched the Bruins for 38 points in leading the Trojans to a 71-60 win over the Bruins at the Galen Center on the USC campus on February 13. Watkins finished with 30 points in this game, adding 5 assists, 3 blocks, and 2 steals.
USC forward Kiki Iriafen added 17 points and 9 rebounds in just 27 minutes. Iriafen got into foul trouble, as did the entire starting five of the Trojans. All five starters had at least three fouls, and the Trojans had 26 fouls to just 12 personal fouls for the Bruins. The Trojans were more physical and aggressive than the Bruins. The Trojans just seemed to be more prepared for the moment.
“What an incredible atmosphere,” Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “So grateful for the opportunity to compete for a championship in our home city, against an unbelievable team with this crowd. You don’t get this all the time. We are really proud to be the Big Ten regular season champions. I think that is the truest test of consistency of excellence. But mostly I think the way we won shows the growth of our team. It literally took every single person. It was such a team effort.”
The Bruins star 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts struggled throughout the evening. USC made things difficult for her, forcing five turnovers and holding her to just 11 points and one assist. Betts came into the game averaging 20 points per game. Betts, who was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year by the Big Ten coaches, did not have a good game on the defensive end, either.
“Defensively, we wanted to get Lauren to dribble a little bit more, push her out and not let her get anything easy,” Gottlieb said. “We adjusted kind of where we doubled from at times. We gave up I thought some looks that we could take away. They are really good. They are minor adjustments. Doubling down on what we do well that they cannot stop and also making a couple of adjustments.”
Watkins was clearly the best player on the floor and Iriafen was arguably the second-best player on the floor. As Gottlieb said after the game, “These two are unguardable. They are both playing their best basketball, which is scary. We know there is no matchup for them.” It is apparent that the Bruins have not figured out how to slow Watkins down.
“I’m just really pissed off that we didn’t show up and do our jobs,” UCLA Coach Cori Close said at the post-game press conference. “Credit to USC. They were tougher. More disciplined, and they did their jobs, and we weren’t as tough, and we didn’t do our jobs. I am really angry. We let each other down today.”
With the loss, the Bruins finished the regular season at 27-2 and in second place in the 18-team Big Ten Conference. They are the No. 4 ranked team in the nation, according to the AP voters. USC is 26-2 for the season and are ranked No. 2 in the nation. While it is very disappointing losing at home before a raucous sellout crowd and with the media attention this game received, the Bruins season is far from over.
“It’s a very weird dichotomy,” Close said. “On the one hand, we have a team that has lost two games all year. We have a lot to still play for and we have a lot to be proud of. At the same time, we let each other down today.”
Both the Bruins and the Trojans return to action on Friday, March 7 in Indianapolis at the Big Ten tournament. USC is the No. 1 seed in the tournament and UCLA the No. 2 seed in the tournament. UCLA will play at about 3:30 pm PST and USC will play at 9 am PST on Friday. Both games will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
If they both win their first two games in the tournament, they will meet on Sunday afternoon to play for the conference tournament championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s tournament. That game will start at 1:30 pm locally and will be televised nationally on CBS. When asked if they would like another chance to play USC, Close gave a clear answer: “100 per cent. Absolutely. Yes.” Let’s hope it happens.