LOS ANGELES -- The Battle of Los Angeles and battle for the Big Ten is over, for now. The Trojans are the victor. USC guard JuJu Watkins is the hero.
No. 6 USC (22-2, 12-1) handed no.1 UCLA (23-1, 11-1) their first loss of the season 71-60 Thursday, Feb. 13 at the Galen Center.
Watkins turned in a career performance to take down UCLA. Watkins double-doubled, scoring 38 points, shooting 6-9 from three while grabbing 11 rebounds. She nearly tacked on a triple to her double with a massive eight block performance.
The Trojans outplayed the number one team in the nation throughout much of the first half. They were doubling UCLA’s score 20-10 with two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first quarter and led by as much as 14 in the second, their largest lead of the game.
At one point, Watkins had as many points as the entire Bruins squad did, both with 21.
The Trojans made it their mission to contain UCLA powerhouse center Lauren Betts in the first half. Any time Betts assumed her usual place in the paint USC simply covered her in defenders. Betts had to battle to even move with the ball, let alone put up shots.
Betts was held to nine points in the first half, and even those nine came mostly from the free throw line, where she was 5-6 in the first half.
UCLA may have fallen farther than they had at any point in the season, but they were not content to stay there. The Bruins took off and outscored the Trojans 17-3 across the next five minutes to rally back and tie the game at 35 even, though Watkins sank yet another three to give the Trojans a 38-35 lead going into the half.
The Bruins carried their newfound momentum into the second half and opened the third quarter with a 10-0 run to charge ahead with the lead 45-38. They kept the Trojans at arms length throughout the quarter and closed the third still up 52-47.
Betts found some freedom and some success in the second half, scoring as many in the third quarter as she had in the previous two. Betts finished the game with a double-double, scoring 18 while grabbing 13 rebounds.
The Trojans did in fact have five players on the court at all times, but they may as well have just had Watkins. She landed 10 of the Trojan’s 14 total field goals through the first three quarters and finished the game having scored over half of USC’s points.
A 4-0 run by the Trojans, or more accurately, by Watkins, put the Trojans back up 53-52 with six minutes remaining in the game. Watkins took that lead with a bucket she threw up behind her as she crashed to the floor on the fast break.
Watkins added another threat to her arsenal in the second half: blocks. Watkins swatted five UCLA shots away in the fourth quarter alone, truly doing it all for USC on both sides of the court.
The tide began to turn Trojan red in the fourth. UCLA ran into a scoring skid, shooting an abysmal 2-16 as a team in the final quarter while scoring just eight points.
While the Bruins were struggling, Watkins was soaring. She blocked a shot over the towering Betts, then rebounded that block, took it coast to coast and fed it to USC graduate forward Kiki Iriafen on the fast break who laid it up and drew a foul for an and-one. Iriafen sank her free throw to put USC up 67-57 with 2:25 remaining in the game.
The Bruins scrambled in the final minutes to try and get back but it was too late. The Trojans kept on rolling with their whole stadium behind them and closed out the game by double-digits to win 71-60 and end the Bruins’ perfect season.
The win gives the Trojans the advantage in the Big Ten standings, where they lead the conference with a 12-1 record.
UCLA returns home Sunday, Feb. 16 to face off against Michigan State at 6 p.m. PT.