USC beats Stanford to win Pac-12 Tournament
No. 1 seed Stanford wasn’t going to let JuJu Watkins be the one who beat them again this season. Fellow Trojans standout guard McKenzie Forbes was happy to step up and do the honors as the No. 2 seed USC Trojans took down Stanford 74-61 in the Pac-12 Tournament Final on Sunday.
Watkins torched the Cardinal in the regular season meeting between these two teams. She poured in 51 points in a 67-58 win for the Trojans in Palo Alto. Watkins scored just two points in the first half — on free throws with 1:36 remaining in the second quarter — and finished with nine points on 2-of-15 shooting. The nine points is a season-low for Watkins and the first time all year she failed to score at least 15 points.
At times, USC can feel like a one-person team with how good Watkins has been and how much national attention she’s received. The rest of the Trojans made it very obvious on Sunday that isn’t the case.
Forbes scored a game-high 26 points, including a big-time three midway through the fourth quarter as well as the final points of the game. Forward Rayah Marshall scored 10 points and grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds. She and Kaitlyn Davis each had five offensive rebounds as USC outmuscled Stanford in that category 18-to-6.
Stanford connected on its first two three-point shots of the game to take a 6-3 lead. USC guard Kayla Padilla drilled back-to-back threes and the Trojans never trailed again.
Despite just those two first-half points for Watkins, USC went into the break up 40-31 and kept is there at 53-44 by the end of the third quarter. Stanford finished that period on a 7-0 run but another Padilla three to open the fourth quarter helped give the Trojans as much breathing room as they’d need the rest of the way.
Padilla finished with 13 points, four rebounds and two assists.
Forbes scored those 26 points in the championship game after going for 17 in the semifinal win against UCLA and nine points, five assists and four rebounds in USC’s opener against Arizona. She was named the Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Watkins was named one of five players on the Pac-12 All-Tournament team.
Up next for USC
With wins against No. 7 UCLA and No. 2 Stanford to close the season, USC likely just played itself into a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
As of this morning, ESPN’s bracketology had Stanford in as a No. 1 seed with the assumption the Cardinal would win the Pac-12 Tournament. USC was listed as a No. 2 seed but no team posted bigger back-to-back wins to end the season than the Trojans.
