USC Convincingly Defeated UCLA Clinching Conference Title
JuJu Watkins and the her teammates put on quite the show yesterday. The battle for Los Angeles was on the line as the two women’s basketball teams faced off. Watkins opening 3-pt shot was so clean and set the tone for the rest of the game. Ultimately, the lady USC Trojans convincingly defeated the UCLA Bruins clinching the conference title on their rival’s home court. Both JuJu Watkins and her teammate KiKi Iriafen were selected to the Associated Press NCAA preseason All-America team last October. And their play last night showed exactly why that was the case.
This was a significant game because as the voice of @uscwbb Eli Kleinmann posted: “Thanks to @GregDMroz it’s the first time since 2003-2004 that two Big Ten teams have played head-to-head for outright conference title in the final game of the regular season.” With the Saturday win, USC won the Big 10 title, and also put themselves in position to get a 1-seed in the Big Dance. And JuJu Watkins clearly understood the assignment. The sophomore has played 5 games against the Bruins in her collegiate career. She has a scoring average of 32.0 against them and scored 30 in 4 of them.
In this particular game her stats were huge:
- 30 POINTS
- • 5 ASSISTS
- • 3 BLOCKS
- • 2 STEALS
- • 10/22 FG
She knocked down 3-pointers with ease and at one point did an intense stare down into the camera after a nasty block on Gabriela Jaquez. In 5 straight wins against rival UCLA they have not been able to come up with any answers to stop her. Maybe because she is extra motivated to play against them. “I would be remiss to say playing UCLA doesn’t motivate me extra,” she said.
USC Convincingly Defeated UCLA Clinching Conference Title
However, we cannot overlook the work the rest of the team put in to seal the victory. KiKi Iriafen took over the second half of the game giving Watkins a chance to relax a little bit. She put up 15 points and six rebounds in the last 30 minutes. Iriafen had said her main reason for coming to USC was to provide relief for Watkins, helping Watkins in those moments where it felt like she was doing it all. It was a decision that made USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb very happy. She said, “These two are unguardable. I think they’re both playing their best basketball now, which is scary.”
Senior Rayah Marshall and freshman Kennedy Smith contributed to their victory with tough defensive play. Fellow freshman Avery Howell hit back-to-back 3-point shots in the fourth quarter essentially sealing the 80-67 victory. The USC Trojans are definitely the Queens of Los Angeles.
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