HARTFORD, Conn. — Eight months ago in Portland, Oregon, Paige Bueckers and No. 3-seed UConn knocked off JuJu Watkins and No. 1-seed USC for a spot in the 2024 Final Four, prevailing in an epic showdown between two of the biggest stars in women’s basketball.
On a chilly Saturday night in Hartford in front of a crowd of nearly 16,000, USC finally avenged that loss in one of the most anticipated matchups of the 2024-25 season.
The No. 7 Trojans warded off a furious comeback from the No. 4 Huskies to come away with a 72-70 victory at the XL Center, earning their first marquee win of the season.
“It feels great to get the dub always,” Watkins said. “I think it hit a little different knowing the history of last year and how they sent us home.”
She added: “It was just great to see everybody that came out. I don’t think I’ve ever played in front of so many people.”
USC dominated the first half and led by as many as 18 early in the third quarter before UConn stormed back, briefly leading midway through the fourth. Neither team led by more than three points in the final 6:21 of the game, but Watkins found Rayah Marshall for the go-ahead basket with 1:24 to play.
The big names showed out in a game that was hyped for its star power: Standout freshman Sarah Strong and Bueckers, the 2021 national player of the year and presumptive 2025 WNBA No. 1 draft pick, each finished with 22 points for UConn. Impact transfer Kiki Iriafen put up 16 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists for USC. Watkins led all scorers with 25 points, with 15 coming in the first half to help USC build its sizable lead.
“It’s just a testament to when you give women a platform, we’re going to perform,” Watkins said. “I think that tonight was an excellent game. … It was just beautiful to be a part of. And I couldn’t imagine watching it.”
Watkins’ 25 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals made her the only player over the past 15 seasons with a 25-5-5-3 stat line against an Associated Press top-five opponent on the road. It was also her fourth career 25-point game versus an AP top-five team, the most of any player over the past two seasons.
“I think Coach Lindsay [Gottlieb] said it best,” Iriafen said. “A lot of the things she does are super hard, but she makes it look so easy.”
Watkins, last year’s national freshman of the year, has supercharged the revival of the USC program, which won championships in 1983 and 1984. In April, the then-upstart Trojans were minutes away from returning to the Final Four for the first time since 1986 before the Huskies — winners of 11 national championships and participants in 23 Final Fours — closed out strong.
With Iriafen and the No. 1-ranked freshman class now surrounding Watkins, the Trojans are hoping for a different outcome this season. Wins such as this one could be a step in that direction.
“This is a really significant win, and it’s a really significant win because of the stature of UConn’s program and what Geno Auriemma has done for our sport,” Gottlieb said after the program’s first win over UConn. “It doesn’t matter to me that they haven’t won a championship in a couple years. There’s still a way that they prepare, a way that they play, that makes you better, and it made us better.”
The Trojans have just one loss this season — at home against Notre Dame on Nov. 23, in a game that wasn’t as close in the second half as the final 13-point deficit indicated.
But the team stuck together afterward and used the experience to make them better.
“We knew how it felt to be in such a big game and for it to not go our way. We didn’t want the same thing to happen today,” Iriafen said. “So we were really cognizant of putting our foot on the gas at halftime. … That’s the biggest improvement that we’ve made from the first game, is just coming together, even when things get hard, and understanding that we practice every day, we’ve done the work, that we can trust that work.”
Freshman Kennedy Smith was back in the fold for USC for the first time since Nov. 15. Her defensive energy and ability to knock down 3-pointers made the Trojans “a more complete team,” Gottlieb said. USC shot 9-of-16 from 3-point range on the night, with Smith accounting for three of the makes, compared with UConn’s 6-of-23 clip.
Senior Azzi Fudd (knee sprain) was also back for the Huskies and played eight minutes after missing the past three games, including UConn’s only other loss, to Notre Dame.
Auriemma said he was proud of his team’s second-half rally but lamented the way his team played in the first 20 minutes.
“I thought the execution part in the first half was just as bad as I’ve seen in a few years here in Connecticut,” he said.
Strong, the front-runner for Freshman of the Year, drew a foul on a 3-point shot with five seconds left in the game, giving her an opportunity to tie the score, but she missed her second free throw. After intentionally missing the third, the Huskies’ last-ditch shot attempt didn’t come close to falling.
“Some people run from the flame, and other kids run to it. She wants to be in that situation,” Auriemma said of Strong. “She relishes that situation. Nobody’s more disappointed than she is right now, in that moment. But I would put her in that moment every single game for the rest of the season and have confidence that she’s going to come through.”
ESPN Research contributed to this report.
