LOS ANGELES, CALIF. — The top-seeded USC women’s basketball team gutted out an intense final four minutes to claw out of a three-point hole and beat No. 5 seed Baylor 74-70 to secure the Trojans’ first trip to the NCAA Elite Eight since 1994. In a battle that saw 11 lead changes, USC made an 8-0 run to get back on top in the fourth quarter, while JuJu Watkins worked her way to her 14th 30-point game of the season to help her Trojans earn the Sweet 16 victory today in Portland, Ore. USC is now 29-5 overall.
The lead changed hands five times in the first frame before USC managed a 10-point lead during the second, and the Trojans would grip a 37-31 halftime advantage. USC had shot 40 percent from the floor in those first 20 minutes, bettering Baylor’s 32 percent effort from the floor. The teams were even on the boards at 23 apiece, with USC’s Rayah Marshall hauling in a whopping 11 first-half rebounds. Baylor heated up in the third and shot 65 percent from the floor to work back on top and lead it 57-53 entering the fourth. An 8-0 fourth-quarter run by the Trojans erased a three-point hole and had the top seeds leading it with 3:13 to to go, and USC fended off the Bears the rest of the way.
USC finished out the game shooting 39.4 percent overall to edge out Baylor’s 38.6 percent. The Bears won the battle of the boards 44-41 and hit nine 3-pointers, but USC’s five threes and a 17-of-21 effort from the free-throw line helped the Trojans secure the Sweet 16 win.
USC was led by Watkins’ game-high 30 points, which included a 12-of-13 outing from the free-throw line. McKenzie Forbes was next with 14 points for USC, while Rayah Marshall had her 14th double-double of the season with 11 points and 16 rebounds. Baylor got 17 points from Sarah Andrew, 15 from Jada Walker and a double-double from Darianna Littlepage-Buggs with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Dre’una Edwards also collected 12 rebounds for the Bears.
Baylor built an early 7-2 lead before the Trojans manufactured a 6-0 rally sparked by a Rayah Marshall bucket and then back-to-back scores from JuJu Watkins to edge ahead 7-6 four minutes into the action. It was a back-and-forth battle from there, with the lead changing hands five times in the first 10 minutes. McKenzie Forbes blasted a 3-pointer to tug the Trojans ahead 16-14, and then she’d follow a Baylor bucket with a strike that had USC ahead 18-16 at the end of the first. A Bear 3-pointer had it at a two-point margin, only to see USC issue blocks from Kayla Padilla and JuJu Watkins helped fuel an 8-0 USC push that had the Trojans ahead 32-22 with 4:00 on the clock. The Bears bit back with a 7-0 surge in under a minute that had it as a 35-31 margin with a minute left, but Padilla had the last word of the half with a jumper that got USC ahead 37-31 for halftime.
Both teams came out of the locker rooms with hot hands, with a combined 25 points scored in the first five minutes of the third. Kaitlyn Davis delivered her first points of the day in that stretch, while Watkins buried a pair of 3-pointers and delivered an assist to Marshall to help net a 49-44 USC lead by the five-minute mark. Baylor would respond with back-to-back threes while USC’s shots fell just off the mark, and the Bears took their first lead since the first quarter with a 50-49 advantage at 2:55. USC nudged back ahead with scored from Marshall and Forbes, but the Bears finished out the third on a 7-0 rally that had Baylor on top 57-53 entering the fourth. USC kicked down the gates of the fourth with a three-point play from Padilla and a 3-pointer from Forbes to shove back ahead, up 59-57. Baylor answered back, though, and was up 64-61 with 4:15 on the clock. The it was the Trojans’ turn again. An 8-0 USC rally ensued, with Watkins delivering an assist to Clarice Akunwafo and delivering a book while also adding a three-point play and two more free throws to get USC on top 69-64 at 1:49. A Bear blast from 3-point range carved it to a two-point game with 1:32 to go, and then Davis took a charge to get USC back the other way in the final minute. Watkins dropped a pair of free throws to make it 71-67 with 26 ticks on the clock, and then Baylor got one back on a 3-pointer at 23 seconds to make it 71-70. In the last 20 seconds Watkins landed two more free throws, and after her 16th rebound of the day, Marshall hit the all-important front end of her trip to the line with eight ticks to go to help USC lock up a 74-70 win.
NEXT:
No. 1 seed USC will face No. 3 seed UConn in the Regional Final at 6:15 p.m. PT on Monday (April 1) in Portland, Ore.
NOTABLE:
– USC is making its first trip to the Elite Eight since 1994.
– FR JuJu Watkins scored 30 points today to move into second place on the all-time NCAA freshman scoring list with 891 points scored this season, passing Kelsey Mitchell (Ohio State) and now standing seven points behind the all-time freshman scoring leader Tina Hutchinson of San Diego State, who scored 898 points in 1984.
– Watkins now ranks No. 3 in the Pac-12 for most points scored by any player in a single season.
– Watkins now has had 14 games of 30 or more points scored this season
– With 11 points and 16 rebounds, JR Rayah Marshall recorded her 14th double-double of the season and the 34th of her career. She has posted a double-double in six of her last eight games.
– In going 2-for-2 from 3-point range today, GS McKenzie Forbes has made at least one three-pointer in 31 games this season.
– Over the last four games, Forbes has made 50.0 percent of her 3-point attempts (15-for-30).
– USC is now 22-0 when scoring 70 or more points in a game this season.
– USC led 37-31 at halftime and is now 25-0 in games this season when leading at halftime.
– USC trailed 57-53 entering the 4th quarter and improved to 3-5 when trailing entering the fourth quarter
– USC held Baylor to 38.6 percent shooting for the game; Baylor entered the game averaging 44.5 percent from the field on the season.
– USC improved to 12-5 this season in games decided by five points or less.
– With 12 free throws made tonight, Watkins extended her USC record for free throws made in a single season with 273.
– Today was her eighth game this season registering double figures in free throws made.
– Now 29-5 overall, USC has recorded its most wins since going 31-5 in 1985-86 under head coach Linda Sharp.
First appeared on usctrojans.com