Paige Bueckers, UConn deny JuJu Watkins, USC a trip to the Final Four

PORTLAND, Ore. — The realization dawned in JuJu Watkins’ eyes, catching in her throat and squeezing her voice to mush.

Has this year fulfilled everything you wanted when you came to USC? Yes. Of course. Everything and more. But it had – past tense – because this press conference was a finality, Paige Bueckers and UConn knocking USC out of the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, 80-73, on Monday night, ensuring there would be no miracle Final Four run in store for Watkins in her freshman year.

“I have the best teammates in the world, and, um, I’m just glad, that –” Watkins struggled, each word wriggling its way through emotional barbs.

She put her hand over her eyes, rubbing her forehead. That, she mumbled again, trying to finish a sentence that had no chance of escaping. Uh, she fought, fighting like she always did, rubbing her eyes incessantly as the emotions of the loss enveloped. Senior McKenzie Forbes, sitting next to her, patted Watkins’ thigh encouragingly. And the freshman simply gave up, collapsing into a mess of laughter and sobs, gratitude and pain.

In the locker room, postgame, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb implored to them: what they had done – 29-6, earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, single-handedly boosting USC to national prominence – was unique, and something she would never forget. An hour later, seniors Kayla Padilla and McKenzie Forbes exchanged an appreciative hug, the one-time Ivy League transfers processing the end of a group that will go down in special memory in USC lore.

“I think it just hurts so bad because we’ve had such an amazing run, and we just never wanted it to end,” Padilla said a moment later, red-rimmed eyes crinkling in a smile.

“Really just revived what it means to be a women’s basketball player in Los Angeles,” Padilla continued a beat later, “and specifically, for this university, I think we’re changing the narrative.”

They changed the narrative, undoubtedly. How the country sees USC women’s basketball, as Gottlieb said after the loss, is forever different now, because of them. Because of Watkins, the freshman who shattered one final record – the NCAA single-season mark for most points scored by a freshman – in a 29-point performance against third-seeded UConn (33-5). Because of Forbes, the transfer who had become one of the most dependable crunch-time scorers in the country. Because of Padilla, and fellow Ivy transfer Kaitlyn Davis, and inside presence Rayah Marshall, and every piece of the roster, top to bottom.

But they left more on the table. And so the tears came.

“We had our sights on Cleveland,” Gottlieb said.

They were shot down, ultimately, by Bueckers, the transcendent junior authoring 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 hasn’t played a full season since because of injuries. She finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists in a do-everything performance, torching USC down the stretch with a string of fourth-quarter baskets.

Up by one, 4:13 left: twisting fall-away from the baseline over Forbes.

Up by three, 30 seconds later: above-the-break 3-pointer.

Up by nine, 1:41 left: short jumper in the paint. Dagger.

“I don’t know Paige personally, but to see that kid be out for two years and come back and do this, as much hurt as we’re in, they earned it, and I credit them,” Gottlieb said.

And the end times crept on USC late, legendary UConn coach Geno Auriemma solving the Watkins-and-company puzzle as well as any coach had all season. Huskies defenders bumped Watkins for 40 minutes off the ball, two or three defenders locking on her with homing missiles on catches at the top of the key.

“(UConn) played great defense. Every time I got past the first line, someone was there,” Watkins said.

Forbes, a Robin who had increasingly answered the bat-signal down the stretch, chipped in with 24 points and a number of big-time baskets in the second half. But Watkins’ gravity off the ball didn’t open shots for post players or other perimeter threats like it had in the past, and the outcome USC had avoided for a solid month dawned: as Watkins was reasonably contained (9-for-25 shooting), her teammates didn’t quite have enough firepower, the Trojans finishing 33% from the field on the night.

On Sunday morning, Gottlieb had a brief conversation with Forbes, telling the senior that she and Watkins would split time on Bueckers. And when the starting lineups assembled for the tip-off Monday night, Forbes trotted over to stand next to Buecker, the two of them exchanging a few words, a slight deviation from the Watkins-Bueckers clash that the Moda Center – and countless households glued to their televisions – expected.

“When you tune in for JuJu, you see Kaitlyn Davis and Kayla Padilla, Rayah (Marshall), and Kenzie,” Gottlieb said on Sunday.

And the world saw Forbes, early. Saw her eyes steely, brow furrowed, attached at Bueckers’ hip. This was a woman who had gotten into Harvard as a transfer, a feat nearly dictated impossible by pure percentage points, a woman without fear. And she attacked early, draining a pull-up 3-pointer in transition, finishing a floater off glass through a body-bump and pumping her first in glee.

But as Auriemma said on Sunday, the Huskies had a problem USC might not have been able to solve. And Bueckers was a unique puzzle. As Forbes draped all over her, she back cut twice for a layup and a foul in the first quarter. Her shot activated in the second after UConn burst for an 18-4 run to swing momentum, matching Watkins after the freshman hit back-to-back 3-pointers on her head, coming back down for back-to-back pull-up jumpers.

Coming out of the halftime break in a tie game, UConn blitzed USC amid a string of missed jumpers, big Aaliyah Edwards – who dominated with 24 points – finishing a layup to cap off an early 8-0 run. The Trojans clung to the reins, with a big-time 3-pointer in transition from Taylor Bigby and then a corner 3-pointer from Padilla to beat the third-quarter buzzer to hold UConn’s lead to four. But Bueckers buried them in the fourth despite Watkins’ best efforts to keep up, the freshman scoring 13 in the period.

And a potential solution to the Bueckers problem never materialized. Gottlieb said afterward that USC’s defensive game plan was to switch on Bueckers on every ball-screen, and there were times when “the coverage didn’t go exactly as we wanted” – but even with the switching, freshman Watkins stayed marooned off Bueckers for much of the night. She could only watch defensively as the UConn junior filled it up in waning minutes defensively, and Bueckers snared a final rebound and roared in joy as the Huskies advanced to a record 23rd national semifinal.

As an emotional Watkins bowed her head in postgame handshake lines, Bueckers embraced her. Hey, bro, that was a good one, she appeared to say, in a video captured by UConn’s social team. Good game. Good game.

And Watkins trudged off the floor, rubbing her jersey over her eyes, gratitude masked in this moment by the pain.

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