In yet another star-studded matchup of a thrilling night in women’s college basketball, Paige Bueckers and the UConn Huskies pulled out a 80-73 win over JuJu Watkins and USC on Monday night in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA tournament at the Moda Center in Portland.
UConn adds to its NCAA record with a 23rd appearance in the women’s Final Four, and will face Caitlin Clark and Iowa on Friday.
“It was one of the better games that I’ve been associated with at this level,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Two terrific teams. Great competitors playing their hearts out for a dream that each kid has when they go to college.”
Bueckers — the Most Outstanding Player of the regional — put up 28 points to go along with 10 rebounds and six assists, proving a dangerous one-two punch with teammate Aaliyah Edwards, who had 24 points and six rebounds.
Bueckers had a long road to recovery from a torn ACL, and is approaching the college basketball mountaintop once again.
“Just today was one of the most rewarding feelings I’ve ever felt in my life,” Bueckers said. “Just seeing where I was a year ago, today, doing individual workouts, starting to feel the basketball again, get the ball in my hands again and play. Now I’m here with my teammates and coaching staff and going to the Final Four.”
For the Trojans, Watkins remained a constant scoring threat and ended up with 29 points and 10 rebounds. She was supplemented by a strong performance from McKenzie Forbes, who scored 24.
“Yeah, I think just coming up short, that adds a lot of fuel to the fire for the next couple years,” Watkins, who set the NCAA women’s basketball freshman scoring record Monday night, said. “I’m just excited to go back home and get in the gym now. I’m really focused on learning from this season as a whole, things I can improve on.”
USC got out to a 15-6 lead early as UConn’s offense struggled out of the gate. But a quick 9-0 run by the Huskies tied things up, and USC led by just two after one quarter.
Bueckers and Watkins lit up the scoreboard in the second quarter, trading buckets and carrying their teams through spurts that tilted the lead back and forth. Bueckers had 15 points in the first half and Watkins had 13.
At the break, the game was tied, 33-33, despite a rough overall shooting half for the Trojans (32%).
The Huskies came out swinging in the second half, rattling off a 17-7 run to take a double-digit lead. But Watkins and her teammates hit their open shots and were able to claw back within four, 55-51, through three.
USC kept fighting in the fourth, with Watkins and Forbes pouring it on to tie things up, 59-59, with 7:21 to go.
With Watkins continuing to push the pace, Bueckers was finding her spots on the other end and knocking down crucial jumpers. At the 3:43 mark, her three-pointer at the top of the key gave UConn a 70-64 lead.
USC kept the foot on the gas pedal, but the shots stopped falling and UConn remained poised down the stretch to hang on to the victory.
Postgame, a visibly exhausted Auriemma reveled in the moment that was a thrilling Monday night in women’s college basketball, and gave credit to players across the country for bringing the game to new heights in terms of attention and respect.
“You don’t want to overdramatize it, but for the longest time it was if someone had these kinds of moments like these kids are having right now, they were either compared automatically to men’s basketball, and always came up wanting, or they were, ‘Wow, look at that, like there’s actually a female athlete that can do that,’” Auriemma said. “It never garnered the respect factor. It was always an incredulous factor. ‘I can’t believe, she plays like a guy.’ But now it’s for real. Now they’re being appreciated for their incredible talents, the show that they put on, the excitement that they create on the court, the excitement that the fans feel.
“And God bless ‘em. They’ve done it. It’s almost like they’ve made everybody come to the 20th century, so to speak, and finally catch on with what these people are capable of doing.”
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