USC’s NCAA tournament run ends in Elite Eight loss to Paige Bueckers and UConn

SPOKANE, Wash. — The answers had run out. The worst case had caught up to USC, at the worst time.

There was no more outrunning the reality looming over this entire NCAA tournament, not with Paige Bueckers at the height of her powers and the full weight of the Connecticut onslaught raining down on them. Without JuJu Watkins, there was no further the Trojans could go. And once again, it was Connecticut which slammed the door, ending USC’s season in the Elite Eight once again with a 78-64 victory.

The Huskies will face UCLA next weekend in the Final Four, while the Trojans are left to wonder where they go next without Watkins.

At every turn, until Monday, USC found an answer for her absence, scratching and clawing their way through two tournament rounds. In the round of 32, it was Kiki Iriafen who came alive in her stead. In the Sweet 16, it was a pair of freshmen in Avery Howell and Kennedy Smith who rose to the occasion.

USC’s season ended in the Elite Eight in a Pacific Northwest venue for the second year in a row.

UConn got 31 points from Paige Bueckers and 22 points and 17 rebounds from Sarah Strong to capture a 78-64 victory over the Trojans on Monday night in Spokane Arena.

USC was denied its first Final Four appearance since 1986 while UConn reached its second straight Final Four and 24th in program history, all under coach Geno Auriemma, who has won a record 11 national championships.

The Huskies (35-3) will square off against UCLA, the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament, on Friday in Tampa, Fla. The Bruins advanced to their first NCAA Final Four on Sunday by knocking off Louisiana State in the Elite Eight, also in Spokane.

The Trojans (31-4) were playing without JuJu Watkins for the second game in a row after she suffered a season-ending right knee injury in the second round against Mississippi State. After grinding out a win over Kansas State in the Sweet 16, USC could not piece together enough offense to keep its season alive.

The Huskies took control late in the first quarter after trailing by six points early in the game and built a 19-point lead by the 7:26 mark of the third quarter. The Trojans fought back and cut the deficit to five points by the end of the third quarter and were down only six points early in the fourth quarter before UConn pulled away.

Last season, the Huskies knocked off the Trojans 80-73 in an Elite Eight game in Portland, Ore.

Rayah Marshall led the Trojans with 23 points and 15 rebounds and shot seven of 12 from the field and nine of 10 from the free-throw line.

Outside of Marshall, USC shot 12 of 46 from the floor and only Kiki Iriafen and Talia von Oelhoffen reached double figures scoring with 10 points apiece.

UConn has a 66-51 lead with 3:27 to go in the fourth quarter as USC has managed only five points in the period, all on free throws.

After making it 54-48 on two free throws by Rayah Marshall, the Trojans saw the Huskies get a jumper and a three-pointer from Paige Bueckers to extend the lead to 59-48. Three free throws by Avery Howell temporarily stopped the bleeding, but then UConn has added to its lead since.

Beckers has 27 points to lead all scorers, and Sarah Strong has 20 points and 16 rebounds.

Marshall has 17 points to lead the Trojans to this point.

UConn leads 51-46 through three quarters but USC ended the quarter on an 11-0 run to make this a ballgame.

The Huskies were up 44-25 with 7:26 to go in the period before the Trojans responded with some instant offense from Talia von Oelhoffen.

After UConn took a timeout with 1:59 to go in the quarter and holding a 51-40 advantage, USC got free throws from Kiki Iriafen and Rayah Marshall and then von Oelhoffen muscled in a layup at the buzzer.

UConn led by as many as 19 points in the third quarter, but USC has trimmed the Huskies’ lead to 51-40, forcing coach Geno Auriemma to take a timeout with 1:59 to go in the period.

The Trojans got baskets from Rayah Marshall and Kennedy Smith, plus a free throw from Kayleigh Heckel to trim the deficit.

Marshall leads USC with 14 points on six-of-seven shooting.

UConn leads USC, 49-35, with 4:49 to go in the third quarter as Paige Bueckers continues to stay hot.

Bueckers is up to 20 points, while Sarah Strong has 18 points and Kaitlyn Chen has nine.

Talia von Oelhoffen has scored eight of USC’s 10 points in the period as the Trojans try to make up ground.

UConn has built a 39-25 lead over USC at halftime as Paige Bueckers hit consecutive three-pointers to close out the scoring in the second quarter and cap off an 11-2 run.

The Trojans had crept to within 28-23 with 2:41 to go in the second quarter. But then the Huskies responded as Kaitlyn Chen had a layup and a three-point play before Bueckers hit her shots. Bueckers has 13 points on four-of-seven shooting.

Rayah Marshall has 12 points on five-of-six shooting, but the rest of the Trojans are shooting five of 22 from the field.

Of particular concern is the backcourt of Avery Howell and Kennedy Smith. The guards combined for 37 points in a Sweet 16 win over Kansas State on Saturday. Against UConn thus far? Five points, all by Smith on one-of-seven shooting, while Howell has missed her only shot attempt.

Kiki Iriafen had six quick points in the first quarter but has been held scoreless since and is shooting three of eight from the floor.

UConn holds a 26-19 advantage with 4:54 to go in the first half as Sarah Strong continues to pose a challenge for USC.

Strong is up to 15 points on six-of-eight shooting, including three three-pointers to go with six rebounds.

Rayah Marshall is picking up the slack on offense, scoring the Trojans’ first six points of the period and has 10 points overall to lead USC.

UConn leads 14-11 after one quarter as the Huskies closed the period on a 9-0 run.

Forward Sarah Strong has 10 points for UConn, which also got baskets from Kaitlyn Chen and Paige Bueckers, who is one for three from the field thus far.

The Trojans went scoreless for the final 4:14 of the quarter and are shooting 35.7% from the field (five of 14).

USC has jumped out to an 11-8 lead with 3:39 to go in the first quarter on the strength of a 10-0 run that was fueled by Kiki Iriafen.

Iriafen has six points on three-of-six shooting, while Rayah Marshall has four. Kennedy Smith, who has drawn the initial assignment of guarding Paige Bueckers, has one steal and one free throw to account for the Trojans’ other point thus far.

After jumping out to a 5-1 lead, UConn missed six straight shots as USC rallied.

Texas is back in the Final Four for the first time since 2003 after holding off TCU, 58-47, in tonight’s first Elite Eight game. The Longhorns will face defending champion South Carolina on Friday in a national semifinal game in Tampa, Fla.

Who will face UCLA in the other semifinal?

That will be decided soon enough. For now, here are the lineups for USC and UConn.

USC

Kiki Iriafen (F)

Rayah Marshall (C)

Avery Howell (G)

Kennedy Smith (G)

Talia von Oelhoffen (G)

UConn

Sarah Strong (F)

Jana El Alfy (C)

Kaitlyn Chen (G)

Azzi Fudd (G)

Paige Bueckers (G)

There’s one more quarter to go in Monday’s first Elite Eight game, Texas-Texas Christian, before the focus shifts to Spokane Arena for USC-UConn but here’s a quick primer of what’s at stake for the Trojans against the Huskies.

These teams met a year ago in the Pacific Northwest in this round, with UConn emerging with an 80-73 win over USC in Portland, Ore. The score was tied at halftime and was a four-point game entering the fourth quarter before UConn pulled away late.

Paige Bueckers scored 28 points to lead the Huskies back to the Final Four while then-freshman JuJu Watkins scored a game-high 29 points on nine-of-25 shooting and added 10 rebounds for USC — leading UConn coach Geno Auriemma to jokingly say that he implored Watkins to turn pro in the postgame handshake line.

Watkins, of course, is not playing tonight, because of her season-ending knee injury suffered in USC’s second-round game against Mississippi State. A win by the Trojans would be considered quite the upset, especially with Bueckers coming off a 40-point performance in the Sweet 16 against Oklahoma.

But if USC pulled it off, it would be the Trojans’ first Final Four appearance since 1986, which was Cheryl Miller’s senior year.

These teams also met in the regular season, with USC beating UConn 72-70 on the road in December. In that game, Kiki Iriafen had 16 points, 11 rebounds and six assists for the Trojans. Bueckers had 22 points on nine-of-22 shooting for the Huskies.

They sat in a line of folding chairs on the Galen Center court, watching the television in front of them intently, waiting as one region after another was announced without them. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Trojans deserved a No. 1 seed — that box had already been checked through a 29-win regular season and Big Ten regular season title run. But as one top seed was declared, then another, then another, a different feeling crept over the group than the joy that filled the room this time last year.

USC once again earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, this time in Regional Two that runs through Spokane in the Sweet 16 round. The Trojans will host No. 16 seed UNC Greensboro at Galen Center in the first round of the NCAA tournament at noon on Saturday. The game will air on ABC. None of that came as a surprise to anyone on Sunday.

Kennedy Smith was only 14, just a few games into her freshman season at Etiwanda High, when she first crossed paths on the court with Kiki Iriafen, who played at Harvard-Westlake. Four years later, with both at USC, Iriafen still vividly remembers her first impression.

“I did not like her,” Iriafen said, with a laugh. “She was a pest.”

JuJu Watkins winced, shaking her left hand, the collective basketball world holding its breath. The first 10 minutes of USC’s NCAA tournament debut had been disconcerting enough already. Errant passes sailed away. Makeable jumpers clanked away. And No. 16-seed North Carolina Greensboro, having promised to “shock the world,” was at the very least making life difficult on the top-seeded Trojans.

Then, their star sophomore went up for a rebound early in the second quarter and emerged from under the hoop wincing with pain, an image that inevitably conjured thoughts of the worst-case scenario.

Rayah Marshall took her place at the front of USC’s defense Saturday, ready to deploy the role she’d spent the past two years perfecting.

USC had dragged through the first quarter of their first-round matchup, unable to separate from No. 16 North Carolina Greensboro. So a few minutes into the second, with her team in need of a spark, coach Lindsay Gottlieb turned to Marshall, the “Mad Dog” at the front of the Trojans’ vaunted pressure defense.

The Galen Center crowd sat in hushed disbelief, every cardinal-and-gold soul struggling to process a scene that seemed ripped straight from their worst nightmares: USC’s superstar lying crumpled on the court, clutching her right knee, her cries rising to the rafters where she hoped a banner would soon hang.

JuJu Watkins, for the better part of two seasons, seemed nothing short of invincible. The sophomore surpassed every sensible expectation with stunning grace, never wavering even as she bore the weight of an entire program. She already captivated the college basketball world, and in the process, dragged the Trojans back from the depths of obscurity to the doorstep of tournament glory, just a few short steps away from a Final Four.

JuJu Watkins screamed.

She held her right knee with both hands, squeezed her eyes shut and screamed.

SPOKANE, Wash. — The first week after Paige Bueckers tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in August 2022, the questions haunted the Connecticut star most.

“The first week was devastation,” Bueckers recalled Friday, 2½ years later. “A sense of just hurt, disappointment, a why-me sort of mentality, why now.”

SPOKANE, Wash. — Thirty six hours after JuJu Watkins’ right knee buckled beneath her and USC’s season changed in the blink of an eye, Lindsay Gottlieb gathered her team for its first practice since its star sophomore went down.

It was a critical moment for USC and its coach. Emotions were still raw. Hearts were still heavy. But while the rest of the basketball world was busy writing off the Trojans, Gottlieb wanted her team to know one thing hadn’t changed in the wake of Watkins’ injury.

SPOKANE, Wash. — It was never a question of belief. Even in the throes of a nightmare scenario, forced to forge ahead without USC’s biggest, brightest star, Lindsay Gottlieb had done all she could to keep doubt from creeping in, all while the college basketball world crossed the Trojans off.

All week her team echoed the coach’s confidence, kindly reassuring the skeptics that they never would waver, with or without JuJu Watkins.

Kennedy Smith could feel her body dragging. It was late December, and she’d just returned from a month-long injury absence. She was still getting her legs back, still trying to find her footing in her first season at USC. But there was no time for that here, not with Paige Bueckers and Connecticut pushing the pace, testing every inch of the Trojans’ defense.

However fatigued she might have felt, no one could tell that day. The freshman had played just four games at USC to that point, but even then played an essential role in lifting the Trojans past the Huskies, all while on a minutes restriction.