When No. 2 UCLA and No. 4 Southern California meet Saturday in Los Angeles, the Bruins will be in pursuit of payback for their only loss of the season. And as they take their home floor, UCLA knows success will start with containing JuJu Watkins, USC’s standout sophomore.
UCLA (28-1, 16-1 Big Ten Conference) gave up 38 points to the National Player of the Year front-runner Watkins when the teams met at USC on Feb. 13 in a 71-60 win by the Trojans. Watkins shot 6 of 9 from 3-point range, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked a career-high eight shots in what was perhaps the best individual performance of her two sensational seasons as a Trojan.
However, it is more than the outstanding Watkins who has USC (25-2, 15-1) on a six-game winning streak and visiting UCLA with designs on a Big Ten regular-season championship.
The Trojans set up Saturday’s matchup with a 76-66 win over then-No. 25 Illinois on Feb. 23 that showcased USC’s balance. Kiki Iriafen matched Watkins’ team-high with 22 points, and Rayah Marshall had 12 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and four steals.
The veterans Marshall and Iriafen are averaging 8.7 and 8.2 rebounds per game to lead the Trojans. Iriafen’s 18.2 points per game supplement Watkins’ 24.2, while Marshall helps key a defense holding opponents to just 58 points per game with her team-leading 55 blocks. Watkins has 54.
“A mark of really good seniors is that other people really like them and really feed off them,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “This is what we call ‘Juicy Rayah’ … Really the catalyst for getting us going. And I think Kiki, over the last couple weeks, has hit her stride with confidence.”
Although the Trojans and Bruins are crosstown rivals, they share remarkably similar make-up. UCLA’s 79.2-point per game offense — which is not far off the USC average of 81.9 points per contest — starts with Lauren Betts, one of the most prolific scorers in the Big Ten.
But behind Betts’ 20 points per game, a variety of Bruins have proved capable of chipping in, including Kiki Rice at 12.8 points per game. UCLA also features dangerous 3-point shooters in Londynn Jones, who has made 55 for the season, and Timea Gardiner, who has hit 46 from beyond the arc.
Connecting from the outside with consistency is a crucial weapon for UCLA’s offense to free up Betts’ prolific interior scoring, Bruins coach Cori Close said following a 67-65 win at Iowa on Sunday.
“The bottom line is, it doesn’t matter (who is defending Betts), they’re bringing two, three, four people in there,” Close said of opposing defenses collapsing on Betts. “When we can get one-on-ones, we’ve got to find her, and do it right away.”
Meanwhile, the Bruins are also one of the stingiest defenses in the nation, holding opponents to 56.4 points per game. In the past three outings in its four-game winning streak since losing at USC, UCLA held opponents Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin to 34.5, 36.7 and 38.3 percent shooting from the floor, respectively.
–Field Level Media
