LOS ANGELES — The journey had been severe, a season of bruises and sprained ankles and halftime IVs for JuJu Watkins, a freshman who’d visibly drain every percentage of sweat left in her body in brutal Pac-12 battles and then push againfor another bucket.
The destination couldn’t have been easier, as Watkins sauntered to the cup in the first quarter of Saturday’s NCAA Tournament matchup with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
She snuck to the hole on a backcut, dropping in a layup without any brush of content, a few minutes after she’d drained a wide-open 3-pointer she could’ve made in her sleep. It seemed innocuous and done so simply that a packed-out afternoon crowd at the Galen Center offered just a slight buzz in response. But it tied up one of the more remarkable accomplishments across USC’s campus in recent years, as the Trojans handled Texas A&M-Corpus Christi easily in an 87-55 win Saturday.
In a first year in which she’d made history seem as routine as any old Tuesday, Watkins snapped a near-40-year-record – set by all-time great Cheryl Miller in 1985-86 – for single-season points in USC program history.
Watkins entered with 810 points, just four shy of Miller’s senior-year mark. She exited with 833, dropping 23 points in a clean performance against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, her ankles preserved and knees hardly scuffed from their usual all-out smacks against the hardwood. Miller watched from a section in the lower basin Saturday with the rest of a crowd hemming and hawing over Watkins’ every move, across the way from a row of fans with chests painted pink to spell out the moniker “GOATLIEB X JUJU,” the home fans getting what they paid for in a clinic of get-to-your-spot jumpers.
The ease in Watkins’ 23 points was notable, leading USC (27-5) to a win and an appearance in a second-round game – their first since 2005-06 – Monday at Galen, where they’ll play eighth-seeded Kansas (20-12) after the Jayhawks beat Michigan in overtime Saturday
For two weeks since USC’s Pac-12 Tournament win in Las Vegas, a grueling three-games-in-three-days span beating Arizona, UCLA and Stanford, she’d rested weary legs and refreshed her mind. Knowing the NCAA Tournament would bring a new set of challenges that Watkins hadn’t seen for months after similar scouts in Pac-12 play, Gottlieb sat with her freshman in a film session in the lead-up to Saturday and dissected every single coverageshe’d faced all year.
Often, teams had dared anyone but Watkins to beat them. And they were beaten, as McKenzie Forbes and Kayla Padilla connected on big shot after big shot in the Pac-12 Tournament.
“Given what we’ve done over the last several weeks, people might look at it differently and say, ‘How do you leave Kayla Padilla and McKenzie Forbes open, or how do you play Rayah (Marshall) one-on-one in the post?’” Gottlieb said earlier this week. “You’ve got to figure it out now, and so we might see something we haven’t seen in a while.”
They did, to start: simple man coverage, at times, on Watkins. She took advantage early, snapping Miller’s scoring record as part of a remarkable 21-0 run in the first quarter, built in large part by swarming defense. On one first-quarter Texas A&M-Corpus Christi possession, Islanders center Alecia Westbrook backed Marshall down in the post, turning over her right shoulder for a jump-hook – and Marshall simply yanked it down out of the air.
USC had seven blocks in the first quarter alone, finishing with 14 blocks on the night, Watkins tallying four and backup big Clarice Akunwafo with five. A swarming defense buoyed the Trojans early, and recaptured momentum late in the first half after the Islanders mounted a slight run to cut USC’s lead to nine. Reserve guard Kayla Williams injected some energy, subbed in and immediately pressing the ball like a moth to a flame, finishing with four steals.
Marshall finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, her fifth double-double in her last six games.
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After Watkins buried a couple of much-too-easy jumpers in the lane to start the third, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi started to send multiple defenders at her, bumping down when she caught the ball in the post. So she eased her foot off the gas, surveying the floor for a variety of reads, an 18-year-old sage keeping the rock popping around the perimeter.
And USC exploded in the third quarter for 35 points. Forbes scored a remarkable 16 of her 23 in the frame, dropping in floaters and jumpers across the floor, Padilla adding a couple massive bombs from the corner. With Watkins off the floor late in the frame, USC pushed the break after an Islanders miss, a loose ball trickling directly into Forbes’ hands beyond the 3-point line.
She launched, no hesitation. Bottom. And she turned to the home crowd, louder than it had been all night, and wagged her tongue, the dagger in an emphatic first-round effort.