USC women’s basketball is just two days away from its final regular-season matchup, with it all coming down to the 60th edition of the Crosstown Showdown in Westwood against the No. 2 UCLA Bruins.
Last time around the Trojans defeated the Bruins in a 71-60 back-and-forth battle. UCLA’s star player junior center Lauren Betts dropped 18 points and 13 rebounds in the rivals’ first meeting, which Trojan senior center Rayah Marshall is determined to stop this time around.
“I feel like she got the best of me this game,” Marshall said. “She’s a big part of what they’re doing, and that’s a big part of my game plan, individually, being a defensive threat to her…making her work hard, make her work for every rebound, make her have to run the floor.”
Though Marshall didn’t play up to the level that she had hoped for last game, senior center Clarice Akunwafo stepped up off the bench when guarding Betts. Despite her stats not showing anything of relevance, Akunwafo was in the 6-foot-7 Betts’ grill the entire game and clearly gave her a hard time. Akunwafo is sure to play a major role in shutting down the Bruins’ star player.
This game is for more than just bragging rights in this year’s second matchup, with the Trojans and Bruins battling for the Big Ten regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament in both teams’ first year in the new conference.
“It’s our most important game this year… there’s a lot on the line,” sophomore guard JuJu Watkins said. “Not only are these our crosstown rivals, but [we’re] the only thing sending them away from a Big Ten regular-season title.”
“It’d be historic…I feel like our coaching staff deserves it, they’ve prepared us for this moment,” Marshall said. “Our players worked hard for it, and also it would kill me if they won and we didn’t.”
Both Marshall and Watkins spoke of how great the support on campus has been, especially during rivalry week.
“It’s awesome. It’s so much fun,” Marshall said. “All the athletes, they’re wishing us good luck ‘go get the Bruins.’”
“We’re trying to make it feel like football,” Watkins said. “That’s my goal here, to make it feel like a big, big thing… I think we always pack our student sections when we play here, so hopefully some of our students get to go there too.”
Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb expressed her excitement for Saturday’s match up, how it means just a bit more now.
“The UCLA rivalry is always a big game, but now the stakes that are on it nationally, and for the Big Ten championship, it has a little bit of an elevated feel,” Gottlieb said.
One player who may need to take on a larger role in the battle for Los Angeles is graduate forward Kiki Iriafen. Iriafen had 13 points and nine rebounds in the first matchup, but went 4-for-14 from the field, with five of those points coming from the free-throw line.
Before she transferred to USC, Iriafen dropped 18 points and seven rebounds on 50% shooting from the field when Stanford and UCLA matched up last season. The Trojans may need Iriafen to return to the form she held with the Cardinal if the Trojans want to pull off the upset in Westwood.
Last time the two matched up, Watkins exploded for 38 points, 11 rebounds and a staggering eight blocks en route to the 71-60 victory. Since that heroic performance, Watkins has drawn even more attention than usual, with a mural of her being erected in downtown Los Angeles.
“She’s so coachable and humble,” Gottlieb said about Watkins. “She carries the greatness with a comfort, like she belongs in that realm, and, at the same time, her teammates just see her as a very humble, ordinary one of them, which I think speaks to her being able to handle it all.”
Watkins had previously talked about how, during the UCLA game, she rediscovered her happiness and joy for the game of basketball.
She told the media it was a self-realization of “don’t take it that seriously. At the end of the day, it’s a game. … “To me, it’s much more than that, but just realizing that it’s a game and go out there and have fun.”
As the regular season comes to a close with this game, Gottlieb praised the team for coming together as the year has gone along.
“I think the growth is in talking to one another on that court,” Gottlieb said. “That just comes from playing with each other over time, that collective togetherness on the court.”
Gottlieb’s energy and enthusiasm towards her team has been well perceived, as Watkins emphasized her excitement.
“We’re both great teams, so it just comes down to the wiring and to those small categories,” Watkins said. “It’s a great game, I’m always excited for the matchup.”
Entering Saturday’s game, UCLA sits at No. 2 in the country with USC at No. 4. In between the two rivals is the one team to give the Trojans a home loss this season - the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
While it is highly possible that this is not the last time these two meet this season, with UCLA’s head coach Cory Close calling the matchup a “Final Four rehearsal,” USC is looking for bragging rights, and a shiny No. 1 seed to cap off the regular season.
The Big Ten regular-season title will be decided this Saturday in Pauley Pavilion at 6 p.m., where the Trojans will hope to win their fourth straight against this vaunted Bruins squad.