USC women’s basketball crowned Pac-12 tournament champions in its final installment

When USC women’s basketball upset Stanford in Palo Alto, freshman guard JuJu Watkins did it almost completely on her own. The Trojans needed every bit of her record-setting 51 points to take down the Cardinal 67-58 last month.

The teams met for a second time in Sunday’s Pac-12 tournament championship, and the game couldn’t have played out more differently on the Trojans’ end. But the end result was the same.

Watkins had a season-low nine points Sunday, but graduate guard McKenzie Forbes more than made up for it. Her 26 points led the way in a 74-61 win over Stanford, as USC claimed its first Pac-12 tournament title since 2014.

Playing all 40 minutes, Forbes shot 11-for-21 from the field, adding four 3-pointers, five rebounds and three steals. During the postgame ceremony, Forbes teared up while talking about the importance of her family being in attendance. Mason Forbes, a redshirt senior forward at St. Mary’s, plays in the WCC tournament semifinals in Las Vegas on Monday, but he made it out in time to watch his sister win the Pac-12 tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

“When the confetti was falling … I said to Coach G, ‘Am I dreaming?’” Forbes said. “I’ve been through a lot in my career, but I’ve never wavered and never stopped believing in myself and my capabilities.”

Forbes noted the impact of her three older brothers in giving her the confidence to score efficiently in this game, even after some inconsistent shooting performances in recent weeks.

It wasn’t like Forbes had to do everything like Watkins did in order to fell the Cardinal. Instead, the Trojans got major contributions from almost everyone else.

Junior center Rayah Marshall had 10 points and 18 rebounds — USC is now 16-0 this season when she scores double-digit points. Marshall’s impact on the boards was particularly vital Sunday against the star frontcourt of senior Cameron Brink and junior Kiki Iriafen; Marshall outrebounded Stanford’s twin trees in the frontcourt on her own.

Graduate forward Kaitlyn Davis filled up the stat sheet again, tallying six points, five offensive rebounds (out of seven total) and five assists. Although she fouled out in the fourth, she exited the game to a raucous ovation after a team-high plus-14 in 30 minutes. After a combined zero points in these teams’ first meeting, the two Kaylas — graduate guard Padilla and senior guard Williams — had 21 between them this time around, including four first-half triples.

“There’s no excuses on a championship Sunday,” USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said of her players’ mentality. “Coaches are always going to give game plans, but it’s up to them to bring it to life. … I can’t credit them enough for being in the right mindspace and doing it together.”

Watkins didn’t score her first point until the 1:36 mark of the second quarter, as Stanford went all out to stop the stud freshman. To the surprise of many, her two free throws at that time extended USC’s lead to five, one they wouldn’t relinquish.

Not only did Watkins not even make a field goal in the first half, but Stanford was more efficient making shots from the field and 3-point range. But, it was USC that held a 40-31 halftime advantage.

However, Stanford had been in this exact halftime spot in every game of this tournament. The Cardinal trailed by eight at the half against both Cal in the quarterfinals and Oregon State in the semis, but they went on to win comfortably in each instance. So, while head coach Tara VanDerveer couldn’t have been thrilled about a nine-point deficit in the title game, Stanford certainly wasn’t out of it by any means.

Stanford outscored Cal and Oregon State by a combined 43-18 in the third quarter in those previous games. As a result, head coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s halftime directive was obvious: don’t step off the gas pedal.

“The pregame message was never get off the treadmill,” Gottlieb said. “The last few games, we’ve started out really hot and then got pushed back. … We did a good job of continuing to be aggressive and scoring on offense, even when we needed to get stops as well.”

In case it wasn’t clear whether her squad got the memo, look no further than this save by Marshall to set up a huge three by Forbes with the shot clock winding down:

The Trojans matched the Cardinal shot-for-shot in the third period, maintaining their nine-point lead heading into the final 10 minutes. The fourth quarter started with another 3-pointer by Padilla, and a couple more big shots by Forbes wrapped it up, shutting down the possibility of another second-half comeback by the Cardinal.

“Today was their day,” VanDerveer said of USC’s performance, especially in the second half. “It wasn’t that we were so bad. I thought they were very good.”

VanDerveer added her team simply didn’t do the basic things well, particularly pointing out the Trojans’ 18-6 advantage on the offensive boards. In fact, Sunday was the first time in over five years that the Cardinal lost the rebounding battle by at least 15, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

Brink and Iriafen had solid offensive nights, combining for 37 points, but the rest of the Cardinal shot just 9-for-26. Gottlieb and Forbes praised Padilla’s effort in particular to limit her opposing 3-point specialist in Stanford’s senior guard Hannah Jump, who had just three points.

In the end, it’s a full circle moment for Gottlieb in multiple facets. First, VanDerveer was one of the coaches who responded to Gottlieb when she wrote a letter to every Division-I head coach during winter break of her final year of college as she tried to break into the coaching industry. Now, USC’s head coach just overcame her mentor in the final conference meeting between their schools, adding that she might not be a coach if not for VanDerveer.

Gottlieb got emotional talking about how much the Pac-12 has meant to her career, and even her personal life, as she met her husband while coaching at Cal previously.

“It is meaningful to me to get the last one in this iteration,” Gottlieb said. “The conference has just been an unbelievable platform for female athletes. … There is some sadness in terms of this being the last [Pac-12 tournament], but at the same time, a lot of pride in us winning the last one as a group. This group will be remembered forever for that.”

This win gives USC, now 26-5 on the season overall, an even stronger case to claim a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament when the bracket is revealed next Sunday.

In the meantime, one thing is clear: the Trojans are going to celebrate this win together. As Gottlieb noted, most teams don’t get to celebrate, and it’s particularly special given USC’s unlikely path to this point.