Watkins, USC beat Baylor, punch ticket to Elite Eight
Freshman All-American JuJu Watkins drove the length of the floor for a go-ahead three-point play with 3:13 left and finished with 30 points, leading top-seeded USC past Baylor 74-70 on Saturday in Portland, Ore. and into the Elite Eight of the women's NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994.
Watkins scored nine straight points for the Trojans in the closing minutes and powered a decisive 8-0 run. McKenzie Forbes added 14 points for USC (29-5), which will face either third-seeded UConn or seventh-seeded Duke on Monday in the Portland 3 Regional final.
Sarah Andrews scored 17 points for Baylor (26-8), which was making its 20th straight March Madness appearance and was vying for its first Elite Eight spot since 2021.
Watkins surpassed Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell (873 points in 2014-15) for second on the all-time freshman scoring list. The 18-year-old has 891 points, seven shy of the record set by San Diego State's Tina Hutchinson in 1984.
Watkins — the nation's second-leading scorer behind Iowa's Caitlin Clark — missed 20 shots from the field, going 8 of 28 overall and 2 of 11 from 3-point range, but went 12 of 13 from the free-throw line. LSU 78,UCLA 69 >> Flau'jae Johnson had 24 points and 12 rebounds, Angel Reese put up her 26th doubledouble of the season and the Tigers beat the Bruins to continue their quest for a second straight national championship.
Reese had 16 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out late in the game for the Tigers, who closed the
game on a 14-2 run.
LSU advanced to the Elite Eight, where it will face Iowa in Monday night's Albany 2 Regional final.
Lauren Betts had 14 points and 17 rebounds for UCLA, which finished the season at 27-7. Londynn Jones and Gabriela Jaquez also had 14 points apiece.
LSU led by seven points at halftime, but after making just two of their first 20 shots from 3-point range, the Bruins hit four of their next five.
Consecutive 3-pointers from Jones keyed an 11-2 run that gave UCLA the lead at 45-44, and the teams were tied at 48 headed into the fourth quarter.
But the Tigers closed the game on a run of their own after trailing 67-64 with 2:46 left.
IOWA 89, COLORADO 68 >> Caitlin Clark had 29 points and 15 assists to lead the top-seeded Hawkyes past the fifth-seeded Buffaloes to set up a rematch of last year's national title game against LSU.
Clark got the Hawkeyes (32-4) going early, driving to the basket for easy lay-ups or throwing fantastic passes. About the only thing missing from Clark's day was one of her signature midcourt
logo shots. She took a couple, but missed.
Clark threaded the needle with a beautiful bounce pass to Hannah Stuelke for a layup before the end of the first quarter that gave the Hawkeyes a 22-14 lead. Clark had six points, six assists and three rebounds in the opening 10 minutes.
She finished the first half with 15 points and eight assists as the Hawkeyes were up 48-35 at the break.
Iowa scored the first six points of the third quarter and Colorado (24-10) could not get within single digits the rest of the way.
The Buffaloes made their first back-to-back trips to the Sweet 16 since 2002-03. They also were knocked out last year by Iowa, falling 87-77 in the same round.
Aaronette Vonleh scored 13 points for Colorado.
Clark moved to sixth all-time in college basketball scoring with 3,859 points. She passed Miriam Walker-Samuels and Deb Remmerde, both of whom played in the NAIA. Walker-Samuels had 3,855 points and Remmerde was one behind her. Clark will be hard-pressed to get into the top five as Grace Beyer is next at 3,961 points.