PORTLAND, Ore. — JuJu Watkins’ eyes glazed over, catching his throat and constricting his voice to mush.
Has this year achieved everything you hoped for when you arrived at USC? Yes. Of course. Everything and more. But this had – past – because this press conference was finality, Paige Bueckers and UConn knocked USC out of the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight, 80-73, on Monday night, ensuring there would be no Finale miracles Four for Watkins in her first year.
“I have the best teammates in the world and, uh, I’m just glad that…” Watkins struggled, each word pushing its way through the emotional barbs.
She passed her hand over her eyes and rubbed her forehead. Thatshe mumbled again, trying to finish a sentence that had no chance of escaping. Uh, she fought and fought like she always did, rubbing her eyes incessantly as the emotions of loss enveloped her. Senior McKenzie Forbes, sitting next to her, patted Watkins on the thigh to encourage her. And the freshman simply gave up, collapsing into a mess of laughter and sobs, gratitude and pain.
In the locker room after the game, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb implored them: What they had done — 29-6, winning the first seed in the NCAA Tournament, single-handedly propelling USC to national prominence – was unique, and something she would never forget. An hour later, seniors Kayla Padilla and McKenzie Forbes shared a grateful hug, the one-time Ivy League transfers addressing the end of a group that will be remembered at USC.
“I think it hurts so much because we had such an incredible run, and we just didn’t want it to end,” Padilla said a moment later, his red-rimmed eyes narrowing into a smile.
“I just reignited what it means to be a women’s basketball player in Los Angeles,” Padilla continued a little later, “and specifically, for this university, I think we’re changing the narrative.”
They have undoubtedly changed the narrative. The way the country views USC women’s basketball, as Gottlieb said after the loss, is now forever different, because of them. Thanks to Watkins, the freshman who broke one last record — the NCAA record for most points scored by a freshman — in a 29-point performance against third-seeded UConn series (33-5). Thanks to Forbes, the transfer had become one of the most reliable scorers in the country. Because of Padilla and fellow Ivy, Kaitlyn Davis, and inside presence Rayah Marshall, and every single item on the roster, top to bottom.
But they left more on the table. And so the tears came.
“We had our sights set on Cleveland,” Gottlieb said.
They were ultimately felled by Bueckers, the transcendent junior who wrote another chapter in a remarkable comeback story Monday night. She reached the Final Four as a freshman, when she was the national player of the year, but she has not played a full season since due to injuries. She finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in a do-it-all performance, torching USC down the stretch with a series of fourth-quarter baskets.
Up one, 4:13 to play: Twisting fall from the baseline over Forbes.
Up three, 30 seconds later: 3 points above the break.
Up by nine, 1:41 to play: Little jumper in the paint. Dagger.
“I don’t know Paige personally, but to see this kid go away for two years and come back and do this, even though we’re hurt, they deserved it, and I give them credit,” Gottlieb said.
And the end times crept in late at USC, with legendary UConn coach Geno Auriemma solving the puzzle of Watkins and company as well as any coach had all season . Huskies defenders pushed Watkins away for 40 minutes, two or three defenders locking her down with homing missiles on catches at the top of the key.
“(UConn) played great defense. Every time I passed the first line, someone was there,” Watkins said.
Forbes, a Robin who had increasingly responded to the bat signal as time went on, scored 24 points and a number of important baskets in the second half. But Watkins’ gravity on the ball didn’t open up shots to post players or other perimeter threats like it had in the past, and the outcome USC had avoided for a good month happened: while Watkins was reasonably contained (9 of 25 shots), her teammates didn’t have enough firepower, with the Trojans finishing 33% from the field that night.
On Sunday morning, Gottlieb had a brief conversation with Forbes, telling him that she and Watkins would split time on Bueckers. And when the starting teams gathered for tipoff Monday night, Forbes trotted over to stand next to Buecker, the two exchanging a few words, a slight departure from the Watkins-Bueckers matchup that the Moda Center — and countless homes stuck. to their televisions – it was expected.
“When you listen to JuJu, you see Kaitlyn Davis and Kayla Padilla, Rayah (Marshall) and Kenzie,” Gottlieb said Sunday.
And the world saw Forbes early. I saw his steely eyes, his furrowed brows, attached to Bueckers’ hip. She was a woman who had entered Harvard as a transfer, a feat almost made impossible by sheer percentage points, a woman without fear. And she attacked early, draining a pull-up 3-pointer in transition, finishing a floater on a glass through a body bump and pumping it first with glee.
But as Auriemma said Sunday, the Huskies had a problem that USC might not have been able to solve. And Bueckers was a unique puzzle. As Forbes surrounded her, she dropped back twice for a layup and a foul in the first quarter. His shot came on in the second after UConn erupted for an 18-4 run to swing its momentum, matching Watkins after the freshman hit consecutive 3-pointers over his head, coming back down for consecutive pull-ups. .
Coming out of the halftime break in a tie, UConn beat USC amid a series of missed jumpers, with big Aaliyah Edwards — who led with 24 points — finishing a layup to capping an 8-0 opening streak. The Trojans held on to the reins, with a big 3-pointer in transition from Taylor Bigby, then a corner 3-pointer from Padilla to beat the third-quarter buzzer and keep UConn’s lead at four. But Bueckers buried them in the fourth despite Watkins’ best efforts to keep pace, with the freshman scoring 13 points in the period.
And no potential solution to the Bueckers problem ever materialized. Gottlieb said afterward that USC’s defensive game plan was to turn on Bueckers on every ball screen, and there were times when “the coverage wasn’t going exactly the way we wanted it to” — but even with the change, freshman Watkins remained isolated from Bueckers for much of the night. She could only watch defensively as the UConn junior filled it in the final minutes defensively, and Bueckers grabbed one last rebound and roared with joy as the Huskies advanced to a record 23rd national semifinal.
As an emotional Watkins bowed her head in the postgame handshake lines, Bueckers kissed her. Hey, bro, that was a good thing, she appeared to say, in a video captured by UConn’s social team. Good game. Good game.
And Watkins stomped off the ground, rubbing his jersey over his eyes, gratitude masked in that moment by pain.
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