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USC Women's Basketball: JuJu Watkins Outlasts UCLA In Double OT Pac-12 Tournament Win

The Pac-12 championship game is Sunday vs Stanford!

Alex Kirschenbaum

USC Women's Basketball: JuJu Watkins Outlasts UCLA In Double OT Pac-12 Tournament Win
USC Women's Basketball: JuJu Watkins Outlasts UCLA In Double OT Pac-12 Tournament Win /
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It took a whopping two overtimes and two troubling JuJu Watkins exits due to an ankle injury (more on that later), but eventually your USC Women of Troy got the job done against the UCLA Bruins in tonight's Pac-12 Tournament Semifinal matchup.

USC began the game strong, posting a dominant 24-8 opening quarter advantage over the Bruins, thanks in no small part to some very confident full-court scoring from Watkins. 

Watkins kept the good vibes rolling early in the second frame with some smooth crossover action...

...But it would prove to be shortlived. Not to be outdone, UCLA rallied in the second frame, at one point riding a 23-6 run to temporarily obtain a 31-30 edge midway through the period. 

A 7-0 Trojans run -- perhaps abetted by the (temporary) departure of All-Pac-12 Bruins shooting guard Charisma Osborne after she appeared to hurt her head while scrambling for a loose ball -- helped USC stabilize long enough to close out the quarter on top. The Trojans led the Bruins 37-31 at the break. Neither team could sustain much of an offensive effort in the face of some hard-scrabble paint defense, with neither team able to connect on less than 39% of its field goals.

The Bruins enjoyed a marginally stronger second half to square the game at 59-59 late into the contest's fourth quarter, thanks to an Angela Dugalic triple with 1:38 remaining in regulation off a Charisma Osborne dish. Watkins and All-Pac-12 UCLA center Lauren Betts each went ice-cold offensively. 

The final two possessions of regulation would go on to haunt both sides. With possession and just 19 seconds left in regulation, Watkins awkwardly turned over the ball on a drive after an (uncalled) hip-check from Osborne and some tough zone coverage from Dugalic, resulting in a Betts steal. But UCLA failed to capitalize on the opportunity, and didn't even manage to get off a shot. The matchup moved on to its first overtime period.

Both clubs exchanged buckets (mostly layups) in the first overtime period. One scary moment for Trojans players popped up when Watkins re-aggravated an ankle injury she had incurred in the game's first half. She had to leave the bout temporarily, but ultimately gritted her way through the rest of the matchup, albeit a bit less effectively. UCLA again had the rock and an opportunity to close out USC late in the frame, and once again couldn't get a shot off before the clock expired.

The Trojans took control early in the second overtime period, thanks to a 6-1 run to kick things off. Critical buckets from junior center Rayah Marshall and grad student wing McKenzie Forbes, in combination with key free throws from Watkins and grad student power forward Kaitlin Davis, helped the team pull away in the second overtime period. USC eventually won by double digits, 80-70.

Watkins paced the pack on offense, having scored 33 points on 9-of-27 shooting from the field and 14-of-17 shooting from the foul line (she got hacked constantly, especially during the bonus period). She also grabbed 10 boards, blocked two shots, swiped a pair of steals, and dished out one lone dime.

Forbes was USC's only other double-digit scorer beyond Watkins, notching 17 points on a brutally inefficient 5-of-20 shooting from the floor (3-of-10 from deep), but contributing tough, hard-scrabble perimeter defense. Davis had a huge night helping Marshall man the paint. Both Davis (16 boards) and Marshall (11) notched double-digit boards while helping keep Dugalic and Betts (somewhat) at bay.

Davis and Forbes (who along with Kayla Padilla have been nicknamed "The Nerds," as all three are graduate students fresh out of Ivy League undergrad programs) showed particular moxie in doing all the dirty week behind Watkins' explosive offensive punch.

USC won the rebound battle against UCLA, marginally, 56-54. It was a hard-fought, physical bout. On the night, both teams shot under 32% from the floor (UCLA connected on 31.6% of its field goals, USC on 31.5%).

Now, the Trojans will move on to face the Stanford Cardinal in a matinee Pac-12 championship game on Sunday, at 2:30 p.m. PT. Here's hoping Watkins' ankle will be in better shape by then!

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Tell Alex, were you in the joint the night Wilt scored 100 points? Or when the Celtics won titles back-to-back and didn't give nobody no kind of slack?

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