The Guru’s Postseason NCAAW Tourney Report: Southern Cal’s JuJu Watkins Suffers Season-Ending Injury as Top Seeds Trojans and Texas Advance With 2-Seed UConn

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Following a day featuring a thrilling double overtime victory for four-seed Maryland and a matching high for Paige Bueckers in her final home appearance with two-seed UConn in Gampel Pavilion, the road to the Sweet 16 turned sour late Monday night on the way for one-seed Southern Cal to take the final spot and women’s fans in general when sophomore JuJu Watkins, the national player of the year, suffered a  season-ending right-knee injury five minutes into  what became the fourth-ranked Trojans’ 96-59 victory over Mississippi State at home in the Galen Center in Los Angeles.

Watkins was carried off the court after going down with the non-contact injury while being chased by two defenders following scoring three points on foul shots as the crowd turned silent while coach Lindsay Gottlieb rushed to her side.

“I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't rattled seeing JuJu lying on the floor and crying,” Gottlieb related after the game.

A team spokesman announcing the injury later said Watkins will undergo surgery and then begin rehabilitation.

USC (30-3) maintained composure the rest of the way thrashing the opposition with buzzer-beaters at the end of the first three quarters while building leads of 28-8 after one, 50-27 at the half, and 75-42 after the third.

Stanford graduate transfer Kiki Iriafen scored 36 for the regular season Big Ten champions shooting 16-22 with nine boards and freshman Avery Howell scored 18 points while downing four shots from deep.

“What a performance by this group,” Gottlieb said. “You never want anyone to go down, especially someone like JuJu that we all lean on in so many ways, but this team rallied. They rallied for her, they rallied for each other, our fans had our back. I'm just really proud and I think we showed what kind of team we are.”

Jerkaila Jordan scored 17 points for the Bulldogs (22-120.

“My prayers and thoughts are with JuJu,” Bulldogs coach Sam Purcell said. “Obviously, we are competitors, and you never want to see that, especially what she means for women’s basketball.”

Iriafen spoke of her team’s resolve in the wake of Watkins’ departure.

“It's hard when you have such a key player not with you,” she said. “For us, it was just making sure we got the job done. We went or season to be extended.”

Southern Cal forced MSU, the ninth seed in Spokane (Wash.) Region 4, into 20 turnovers mining 27 points.

This weekend in the region semifinal Saturday the Trojans, ranked fourth, will face fifth seed and 19th ranked Kansas State (28-7), which advanced Sunday upsetting fourth-seed Kentucky 80-79 in overtime as the visiting team in Lexington.

On the other side of the bracket, Big East champion UConn, the only non-Power Four representative still alive from the original 68-team field, handled 10th-seed and 22nd-ranked South Dakota State 91-57 as Bueckers equaled her personal best with 34 points for the two-seed and third-ranked Huskies (33-3) against the Summit League champions (30-4), whose Paige Meyer scored 17 points.

Should Southern Cal advance and Connecticut beat third seed and 11th-ranked Oklahoma (27-7), the two would face each other in the same round as a year ago when Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma’s then-injury-riddled squad upset the Trojans, whose Watkins had become national freshman of the year.

The Sooners advanced Monday at home in Norman beating sixth-seed Iowa 96-62, which lost to unbeaten South Carolina in the national championship game in Cleveland in the final collegiate appearance of Hawkeyes sensation Caitlin Clark, who became the No. 1 overall pick by Indiana in the WNBA draft and rookie of the year.

Bueckers is expected to succeed Clark next month with the honor by the Dallas Wings becoming former Villanova great Maddy Siegriest’s teammate.

“Paige was Paige,” said Auriemma, whose ongoing extending collegiate record win total reached 1,246 after passing retired Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer at 1,217 last November. “It was a great way to finish your (home) career. No better way than with a game like that, a performance like that.”

Azzi Fudd, with the option to play one more season or enter the draft, scored 17 and freshman Sarah Strong had 15 points, seven boards, five assists, three steals, and two blocks.

“I haven't had a wave or rush of emotions hit me yet because we are so locked in and focused on the task at hand and being present in the moment,” Bueckers said. “We didn't look at it as our last game at Gampel. We looked at it as the second round NCAA tournament game that we're trying to win and trying to keep advancing.”

Oklahoma got 17 points from Skylar Vann while Oregon State transfer Raegan Beers had 11 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks in a game in which the home team had a 64-33 advantage on the Hawkeyes (23-11), whose Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen scored 20 in her final collegiate game.

“As I told our team, it wasn’t the outcome we wanted,” said Iowa coach Jan Jensen, who was promoted after Lisa Bluder retired at the end of last season. “Certainly, the way that we played wasn't how we had been playing. But credit a really good Oklahoma team.”

Sooners coach Jennie Baranczyk played at Iowa when Jansen was an assistant.

“Today's a big moment,” she said. “There's a lot of emotions in the game period I was really proud of the steadiness that we had.”

Fourth seed and 18th-ranked Maryland (25-7) rallied from a 17-point deficit in the third quarter and outlasted fifth seed Alabama 111-108 at home in the XFINITYCenter in College Park as transfer Sarah Te-Biasu scored 26 points, including a shot from deep against the Crimson Tide (24-9) with 12 seconds left in regulation to force the first overtime and later scored eight in the second one.

Alabama’s Sarah Ashlee Barker had a career-high 45 points.

“It was really a fight,” Te-Biasu said. “We went double overtime, but we just kept playing for each other the whole game. I know I think it was like the third and fourth quarter it was a little bit tough for us, but we never gave up and we just kept fighting. That's all we did.”

The Terrapins were the only four seed to beat a five-seed in the second round, giving a four seed a place in the Sweet 16 in each of the 43 tourneys in history dating to 1982.

Maryland, representing the Big Ten with USC and UCLA, will play 1-seed South Carolina Friday in Birmingham, Ala., in the Region 2 sector.

Two ACC teams are set to play each other on the other side of that match after third seed and 12th ranked North Carolina (29-7) advanced to play second seed and seventh ranked Duke by ousting six seed West Virginia 58-47 on Monday at home at Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill as Alyssa Ustby scored 16 of her 21 points in the second half against the Mountaineers (25-8).

Lexi Donarski and Reniya Kelly each scored 11 to set up a first meeting between the nearby rivals in the NCAA field.

“Man, I just I'm over filled with pride for this group,” said UNC coach Courtney Banghart, who previously coached at Princeton. “You think about what Carmichael looked like tonight and how many people have wrapped their arms around this team and willed us to wherever we need to be. Our kids earned it, and our fans showed up for us.”

On Monday, the other side of the 1-seed UCLA 5-seed Ole Miss match Friday in Spokane Region 1 got filled when three seed and 10th-ranked LSU (30-5) at home in Baton Rouge, La., won 101-71 over six seed Florida State (24-9) while two seed and ninth-ranked NC State (28-6) at home in Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh dispatched seven seed Michigan State 83-49.

In the LSU game, the Tigers pulled away from a 50-49 half with Mikayla Williams finishing the game with 28 points and Aneesah Morrow 26 with 11 rebounds. S’Myah Smith added 20 points and 12 12 boards.

Ta’Niya Watson, the nation’s leading scorer, collected 30 points but only seven following intermission for the Seminoles.

NC State in their game got 26 points frim Aziaha James, while Saniya Rivers and Madison Hayes each scored 17 with Rivers dealing 11 assists, and reserve Zamera Jones scored 12.

Michigan State’s Grace VanSlooten scored 15 with 11 boards.

In the remaining game played Monday afternoon, top seed and fifth-ranked Texas (33-3) beat eight seed Illinois 65-48 at home in Austin to set up an SEC rematch with five seed Tennessee Saturday in Birmingham, Region 3.

Madison Booker scored 20 for the Longhorns while Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda scored 19 and said afterwards, “I've been prepared for this moment since day one freshman year.  “You just saw the most confident version of myself.”

Texas coach Vic Schafer said of her, “When I can play her, it opens up the playbook for me when she came in, it really changed things for us.”

Adalia McKenzie scored 13 for Illinois.

Noteworthy

Joining the Big Ten trio in the Sweet 16, the SEC has six teams still alive; the ACC has four, and the Big 12 has two among the 15 Power 4 squads with UConn from the Big East.

Northwestern coach Joe Mckeown, a graduate of Father Judge who grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, announced his retirement too occur after next season. He previously coached George Washington and New Mexico State.

In the WNIT Charleston of the Coastal Athletic Association beat MEAC representative Howard 76-56 and will play at Rutgers 7 p.m. Thursday night at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J.