On Saturday afternoon at the MVP Arena, USC won 74-70 against Baylor in the Sweet 16. An interesting matchup between two women's basketball teams that gave them a ticket to the next phase of the tournament.
The University of Southern California plays in the Pac-12 Conference, where they have won 28 games and lost 5. The Iowa team finished in second place in the Conference and their goal this year is to take the championship along with their rookie this year JuJu Watkins. In the first round they faced Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and won by 32 points. To advance to the Sweet 16, they defeated Kansas by 18 points and thus earned their ticket to this phase of the tournament.
On the other hand, Baylor University finished in first place in the Big 12 Conference after 26 games won and 8 lost. The Texas team sought to surprise in the game by beating USC and advancing to the next phase of the tournament. The first round they won by winning by 17 points against Vanderbilt and then they faced Virginia Tech where they also won to advance to the Sweet 16.
Early in the game, the Trojans quickly took the lead. The first to use their first timeout were the Bears in the 5th minute, the coach asked for more mid-range shots and to try to run out the clock as much as they could. JuJu Watkins started the game very well by scoring 8 of USC's 18 points in the first quarter, at the end of the first quarter the score was 16 to 18 in favor of the Trojans.
In the second quarter, both teams played very evenly and either of them could have taken the advantage. In the following minutes, USC's outside shooting gave the team a small advantage of up to 7 points, Baylor on the other hand attacked the basket at every opportunity and got several offensive rebounds. The first half ended and the score was Baylor Bears 31-37 USC Trojans.
Coming back from the break the Bears increased their level of play and Jada Walker was the leader of the Baylor offense. She came out determined to put her team ahead on the scoreboard and scored 6 points in the third quarter. The Baylor Bears managed to take the lead for the first time in the game. USC was outmatched in this quarter and finished 4 points down.
In the fourth quarter, things got out of control and USC regained a 4-point lead with one minute left in the game. But Baylor with 22 seconds left tightened the game after Sarah Andrews' triple. However, a defensive error gave JuJu Watkins the opportunity to shoot free throws and gave her the lead again. The game ended and USC took the 74-70 victory.
Upcoming matches and featured players
The Baylor Bears were left out of the tournament by losing in the Sweet 16. On the other hand, USC will face Uconn in the Elite 8, the game will be on April 1 at the Moda Center and we will have the opportunity to see JuJu Watkins against the star Paige Bueckers.
We must highlight the great game of JuJu Watkins, he played very well the entire game and got 30 points, 4 assists and 6 rebounds in 39 minutes played. Likewise, it was a very good game for the player Sarah Andrews who had 17 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds.