INDIANAPOLIS — USC and UCLA have made themselves right at home in the Big Ten.
The Trojans and Bruins will play for the conference tournament championship on Sunday, with the winner getting the Big Ten’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. That means, regardless of who wins, the Big Ten’s regular-season and conference tournament titles will go to a former Pac-12 team.
USC and UCLA, along with Oregon and Washington, left the Pac-12 after last season to join the Big Ten. Though the move has been an adjustment — more travel, getting to know new opponents — the Trojans and Bruins have fit right in. They were far and away the best teams in the Big Ten this season, with USC winning the regular-season conference title thanks to a win over UCLA last weekend.
Now they play for a third time in less than four weeks, with another title on the line.
INDIANAPOLIS − UCLA has to see JuJu Watkins in its nightmares.
Watkins scored six points and set up the final possession that ended with Avery Howell draining a 3-pointer to send USC into halftime with a 10-point lead, 45-35.
Watkins already has 18 points and five boards against her crosstown rival.
UCLA is showing more ferocity than it did when these two teams met last weekend, but the result has been much the same. Any time the Bruins get close, Watkins starts doing JuJu things and USC pulls away.
Heading into the locker room at halftime, Kiki Iriafen was asked on the CBS broadcast what USC needs to do to keep up the intensity. Iriafen said they just need to keep feeding Watkins because she’s “cooking.” Not wrong.
INDIANAPOLIS − And you get a foul! And you get a foul! And you get a foul!
Midway through the second quarter, USC and UCLA are both facing foul troubles. Gabriela Jaquez and Londynn Jones, who’ve been tasked with coralling JuJu Watkins, each have two fouls, along with Kiki Rice. But Kiki Iriafen, USC’s second-leading scorer, and center Rayah Marshall both have two for the Trojans.
INDIANAPOLIS − And now Londynn Jones has picked up a second foul.
Jones and Gabriela Jaquez have been the primary defenders on JuJu Watkins, and now both have two fouls with 5:16 still to play in the second quarter. Going to be interesting to see how UCLA coach Cori Close manages this.
INDIANAPOLIS −UCLA had to be having nightmare flashbacks mid-way through that first quarter.
JuJu Watkins made a field goal, followed with a pull-up 3 and then, after a bucket by Kiki Iriafen, outmuscled the Bruins defense for a layup. A Malia Samuels 3-pointer capped the 12-0 run, and USC appeared to be firmly in control.
A pair of 3s by Timea Gardner kept USC from running away, and a layup by Kiki Rice with less than 4 seconds to go pared USC’s lead to 24-19 after one quarter. But UCLA has to find a way to get its offense going − and shut USC’s down.
INDIANAPOLIS − Welp. Three minutes into the first quarter and Gabriela Jaquez already has two fouls.
Jaquez was put on JuJu Watkins, a switch from the first two meetings between the teams. It looked like a smart move initially, with Jaquez not letting Watkins get loose and forcing USC to look to other players to get the offense going. But that plan will have to be altered now.
TV channel: CBS
Geno Auriemma used to explain UConn’s dominance in Diana Taurasi’s days by saying, “We have Diana. And you don’t.” The same could be said for USC’s success against UCLA since JuJu Watkins arrived.
The Trojans snapped a nine-game losing streak to their crosstown rivals last year, Watkins’ freshman season. They’ve now won four in a row, and Watkins is the main reason. She’s averaging 33.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, four blocks and 3.5 assists per game against the Bruins.
In their first meeting this season, when USC handed UCLA its first loss of the year, Watkins scored 38 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had eight — eight! — blocks. She had 30 points in USC’s win last weekend.
“We obviously felt really badly about how we played them the last time and how we showed up, and we don’t ever want to feel that again,” UCLA center Lauren Betts said Saturday night. “So I know we’re all going to change going into it.”
UCLA’s Londynn Jones had her best game of the season in the Big Ten tournament semifinals.
Jones had a season-high 22 points against Ohio State on Saturday night, 18 of which came on 3-pointers. The six made 3s is also a season high.
It was quite a turnaround for Jones, who’d gone 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the quarterfinal win over Nebraska.
“Not only was she spectacular in her numbers, but her response. She had a tough start at the very beginning of the game, and to stay that mentally focused and locked in and to come out and respond the way she did, I think that puts an even bigger exclamation mark on how well she played for the sake of our team,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I just think that’s not easy to do, and that showed a lot of mental toughness on her part.”
South Carolina became the next team to add its name to the list of automatic qualifiers. South Carolina claimed the SEC tournament with a 64-45 win over Texas, earning its third consecutive SEC tournament victory.
Selection Sunday for both the men’s and women’s bracket is slated for March 16. The announcement comes two days before the start of the men’s tournament and three days before the women’s.
