LAS VEGAS, NEV. — March 9th, 2024

The No. 5 USC women's basketball team dug deep for an epic rivalry win over No. 7 UCLA, beating the third-seeded Bruins 80-70 in double overtime to capture the second-seeded Trojans' first trip to the Pac-12 Tournament championship game since winning it all in 2014. A heroic 33-point effort from USC's JuJu Watkins was bolstered by gutsy play across the board for the Trojans, who outscored their rivals 13-3 in the second overtime to improve to 25-5 overall. UCLA is now 25-6 after taking its second loss of the season to USC. The Trojans will now face top-seeded Stanford in the Pac-12 title match at 2 p.m. on Sunday (March 10).

It was a first-half tug-of-war with the teams trading sizable 16-0 scoring surges. USC manufactured the first rally to go up 24-8 at the end of the first quarter before the Bruins answered to knot it up in the second. USC would wrap the first half on a 7-0 run to lead it 37-31 at the break, having shot 38.2 percent from the floor to sit just ahead of UCLA's 36.7 percent effort. USC also had the edge on the boards 22-21 through those first 20 minutes of semifinal action. The jostling for position continued in full force through the second half and beyond. UCLA fought back to tie it after USC had held a five-point lead with 4:00 left in regulation. That would lead the rivals into overtime, where this time it was USC that landed a late 3-pointer to tie it up for the 11th time. In the second overtime, USC dug in its heels, utilizing stingy defense and netting big buckets on the offensive end to claim the 10-point win in epic fashion.

USC finished out the game shooting 31.5 percent overall, going 30-of-37 from the free-throw line and winning a tight battle on the boards 56-54. UCLA shot 31.6 percent overall and was 15-of-17 from the stripe. The Trojans were paced by a ferocious effort from Juju Watkins, who set a new Pac-12 Tournament record for single-game scoring by a freshman with her 33-point effort while battling through knocks and bruises. She'd record a double-double with 10 rebounds, and was joined in double figures by McKenzie Forbes' 16 points. Kaitlyn Davis hauled in a season-high 16 rebounds for the Trojans, and Rayah Marshall pulled in 11. UCLA had four players finish in double figures, led by Charisma Osborne's 21 points along with 17 points and 18 rebounds from Lauren Betts. Kiki Rice had 11 points for UCLA, and Angela Dugalic finished with 10.

UCLA struck first with a 4-0 start, but USC's balance bit back as six different Trojans scored in the next five minutes to get USC to a 12-8 lead at 4:45. USC's rally extended to a 16-0 run that featured six straight points from JuJu Watkins back-to-back big 3-pointers from McKenzie Forbes at Watkins in the final minute. UCLA had come up empty for over six minutes in that frame while USC built out a 24-8 lead at the end of the first. The Bruins busted out of their dry spell in the second with a 16-0 surge of its own to knot it at 26-26 with 4:32 on the clock. Free throws from Kayla Williams snapped that streak, and although UCLA edged ahead 31-30 at 3:29, Watkins and Williams delivered back-to-back buckets and then Forbes blasted another bomb from 3-point range to tug the Trojans ahead 37-31 to wrap the first half.

USC hit a cold patch from the floor in the third but was able to get to the line. A Bruin 3-pointer had UCLA one back at 42-41 before Kayla Padilla broke through for USC to make it 44-41 at 3:45. After a back-and-forth stretch next, the Trojans would carry a 48-45 lead into the fourth. The battle raged on, with the lead trading hands three times in four minutes. A 4-0 push from Watkins nudged USC ahead 55-54 at 6:25. A Padilla block would segue to a 4-0 USC push with a pair of free throws from Forbes followed by a bucket from Watkins to make it 59-54 USC at the four-minute mark. Again UCLA fired back, netting a score down low and then an equalizing three to snarl it up 59-59 with 1:35 on the clock. With a flurry of action on both ends, Padilla came up with an enormous block on the defensive end and USC called timeout with 18 second on the clock after Davis captured the rebound. USC went on the attack looking for the go-ahead score, but the shot didn't come, and UCLA got the ball with 2.1 ticks to go. The Bruins didn't get their shot off in time, and the game pushed on the overtime.

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