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JuJu Watkins is used to feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders. It was how she was brought up on the basketball court, long before USC, when she was just a young phenom from Watts, programmed to shoulder whatever burden was asked of her and her otherworldly talent. Anything to be great. It’s in her nature — more muscle memory than conscious thought at this point. When the moment calls for it, Watkins never hesitates.
Those moments came in thrilling succession Thursday, asking more and more of Watkins, who just kept answering and answering, bending one of the biggest games of her career — and the college basketball season — to her will. After a weeks-long slump had seemingly sapped Watkins of her on-court joy, it was clear she recaptured it against UCLA. Carrying USC with 38 points, she also energized the Trojans’ defense, swatting one shot after another, eight in total, with each block sending a sellout crowd of 10,258 at Galen Center into pandemonium.
An inability to consistently stop USC star JuJu Watkins coupled with turnovers ultimately prove too much for UCLA women’s basketball to overcome in a 71-60 loss.
It was a performance for the ages, the sort of night worth braving a driving L.A. rain for, the sort of game USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb assured she would talk about for years to come. But when the moment finally reached a peak in the final minutes of the most consequential matchup of the women’s basketball calendar to date, Watkins wasn’t alone in lifting USC to a 71-60 victory over previously undefeated and top-ranked UCLA.
Of course, the star sophomore almost solely ushered the Trojans to that point, pouring in everything she had to become the only player to achieve a 35-point, five-block, five-assist performance in the last 20 seasons of Division I basketball.
It was also the first time USC upended a No. 1 team since the 1983 national title game against Louisiana Tech and the first win over a No. 1 team in its home arena.
“This,” Gottlieb said, “was a historic Galen performance.”
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1. USC’s JuJu Watkins tries to drive past UCLA’s Londynn Jones in the fourth quarter. 2. JuJu Watkins celebrates after blocking a shot. 3. JuJu Watkins celebrates after making a three-pointer. 4. UCLA’s Kiki Rice, bottom, and USC’s Avery Howell battle for a loose ball in the fourth quarter. 5. USC’s Kennedy Smith drives to the basket in front of UCLA’s Janiah Barker in the fourth quarter. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Yet, with just over four minutes remaining, it wasn’t clear which of the crosstown rivals would have the final say on that history. UCLA had a 56-55 lead, as Watkins backed her way into the paint, waiting for the play to develop. A split second later, freshman guard Avery Howell sprinted open around a screen. Watkins found her, and she fired away from deep, sinking her only bucket of the game — and perhaps the biggest of her season.
Next it was Clarice Akunwafo, the Trojans’ unheralded backup center, who’d spent all game as a thorn in the side of UCLA’s star center, Lauren Betts. Betts tallied 18 points, but she made just 38% of her shots, her lowest rate of the season, due in large part to Akunwafo and her stifling defense.
It was the senior who deflected a late entry pass intended for Betts, before chasing it down for a steal to secure what turned into a back-breaking fast-break bucket from Kiki Iriafen.
“It was just a clinic in post defense,” Gottlieb said of Akunwafo’s performance.
Iriafen rose to the occasion late, shaking off a one-for-nine start to score nine of her 13 points in the fourth quarter. No other Trojan outside of Watkins scored as many points.
But in the annals of USC basketball history, Watkins’ performance will surely burst from the page. She entered on a four-game shooting slump, during which she’d barely scraped 30% from the field.
It was out of that difficult stretch, Watkins said, that she learned an important lesson.
“It has been a tough couple weeks for me,” Watkins said. “But there’s a lesson in everything. I think that is to always stay joyful on the court.”
That joy came pouring out of Watkins from the start Thursday. She pulled up at the top of the key early and drained one three-pointer. Then another. She hit four more from deep in the first half, threatening to run the rival Bruins out of the gym.
“Bottom line is, JuJu got really hot from three,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “She made more threes in the first half than she’s made in the last five games.”
Watkins wasn’t just dominating from deep. She was just as stellar on the defensive end, hustling to every loose ball and close-out and helping double-team Betts.
Her scorching jumper eventually cooled, opening the door for the Bruins to rally in the second quarter. UCLA opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run, mounting its own threat to run away with the game.
“I thought we had to change our energy,” Gottlieb said. “I felt like we looked too defeated at that point.”
So she changed course, entrusting Watkins to double-team Betts whenever UCLA sent a pass into the paint. The move paid off, as Watkins delivered in a way no one could’ve expected by repeatedly blocking Betts’ best efforts in the post.
“I gotta be better, period,” Betts said. “I think towards the end I was just forcing a lot of tough shots.”
They only got tougher, as USC’s defense clamped down and UCLA hit just two of 16 attempts from the field in the fourth quarter.
As the final seconds ticked down, a thin smile spread across Watkins’ face. Her slump was gone, swept away on a rainy night in the city. She looked up at the arena, packed to the rafters, then over toward her family courtside, flanked by celebrities. There was Kevin Hart. And Issa Rae. And Sanaa Lathan, one of her favorites, from the movie “Love and Basketball.” Not to mention all the USC hoops luminaries. All there to see her, to see USC.
Her face, in that moment, filled with joy.
“When people like that show up, you can’t disappoint,” she said. “I’m really like a kid out there, living out my dreams.”
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