Women’s College Basketball | USC & UCLA
No. 6 USC 85, UC Riverside 53
LOS ANGELES — JuJu Watkins’ favorite player has been LeBron James from way back. The NBA’s career scoring leader stuck around to watch her put on a show.
Watkins scored 27 points in 28 minutes and No. 6 Southern California routed UC Riverside 85-53 on Sunday night to remain undefeated at home.
The women salvaged the day for USC after the men’s team lost to Long Beach State in overtime in Bronny James’ college debut for the Trojans.
Some of the season-high crowd of 9,806 remained for the women’s game, including the elder James and his 9-year-old daughter Zhuri, who wore a USC jersey. They saw Watkins total 20 points before the third quarter was over.
“He’s the greatest right now so just to have him come off a dub in Vegas and stay for our game, that’s love,” Watkins said. “Just to see him continue to be great and strive for greatness is what I hope to do.”
Rayah Marshall added 11 points and 12 rebounds for the Trojans (8-0), who have blown out all five of their opponents at Galen Center this season.
“I really challenged the team, as I would say, to be juicy, have a lot of energy,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “Some of this crowd had never seen us before and we wanted to make sure that we represented ourselves.”
It was the first time in four games that Watkins didn’t score at least 30 points, a feat she’s accomplished five times already this season. She sat down for good with 3½ minutes remaining.
The Highlanders (4-4) were led by Jordan Webster with 20 points, including five 3-pointers, and Matehya Bryant added 14 before fouling out.
Watkins scored USC’s first five points of the fourth, extending their lead to 73-40. In the game, she hit four 3-pointers and had five assists, five steals, three rebounds and two blocked shots.
“I just want our offense to keep evolving,” Gottlieb said. “We’re very hard to guard when that ball is moving.”
Riverside matched USC in scoring in the third with 20 points, but the Highlanders fell behind by 39 points in the period before trailing 68-36 going into the fourth.
The Trojans led 48-16 at the break, their largest lead of the first two quarters. Watkins scored 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting, hitting both of her 3-point attempts.
No. 2 UCLA 95, No. 20 Florida State 78
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Lauren Betts has been nearly unstoppable around the basket this season, shooting 77% from the field.
UCLA’s 6-foot-7 center had 22 points and 18 rebounds to help No. 2 UCLA beat 20th-ranked Florida State 95-78 on Sunday at the Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase.
“I’d be the most foolish coach not to give her touches,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “It creates for the people around her.”
Charisma Osborne and Angela Dugalic added 16 points each for the balanced Bruins (9-0), who had five players score in double figures. UCLA started the game scoring 13 of the opening 15 points and led 20-5 as Florida State made just one of its first 14 shots.
Betts had six quick points as the Seminoles had little answer for the sophomore post player. Florida State finally got going at the end of the quarter behind Carla Viegas’ five points to trail 26-17 after one.
Florida State (7-3) hung around by hitting 3-pointers and only trailed 47-37 before the Bruins scored seven straight to go into the half up 54-40. Betts had 18 points at the break, hitting nine of 10 shots.
The Seminoles collapsed inside against Betts in the second half and got within 64-55 late in the third quarter before the Bruins scored 10 straight to put the game away.
“They are an amazing basketball team, really talented, excited to see them go far this season,” Florida State coach Brooke Wyckoff said. “Happy for the way we battled today. Ta’Niya did what Ta’Niya does.”
Ta’Niya Latson scored 26 to lead the Seminoles while Sara Bejedi added 19.
While the two teams had never played before Sunday, they do have a connection as Close served as Florida State’s associate head coach from 2004-11 before getting the job with the Bruins.