{"id":85105,"date":"2025-03-08T19:37:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T01:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/usc-trojans-advance-to-big-ten-tournament-final-against-rival-ucla-bruins\/"},"modified":"2025-03-08T19:37:44","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T01:37:44","slug":"usc-trojans-advance-to-big-ten-tournament-final-against-rival-ucla-bruins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/usc-trojans-advance-to-big-ten-tournament-final-against-rival-ucla-bruins\/","title":{"rendered":"USC Trojans advance to Big Ten Tournament final against rival UCLA Bruins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, the USC Trojans<\/a><\/strong> got it done in the fourth quarter. The Trojans used a 14-0 run to break a 60-60 tie with 6:29 remaining and ultimately coast to an 82-70 win over the Michigan Wolverines<\/a><\/strong> in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament.<\/p>\n

But after struggling to put away Indiana in the quarterfinals, the top-seeded Trojans again found themselves in a real game well into the second quarter against the No. 5-seed Wolverines.<\/p>\n

The Trojans scored just nine points in the first quarter as USC shot 5-for-17 from the floor and turned the ball over four times. Michigan took a 31-29 lead into the halftime locker room as JuJu Watkins finished the first 20 minutes with three turnovers and four points on 2-of-9 shooting. USC had nearly as many turnovers (nine) as made baskets (12).<\/p>\n

The second half was a different story as USC shot 60.7% from the field and both Watkins and Kiki Iriafen<\/a><\/strong> turned it on. Watkins scored 16 of her 20 points in the second half and Iriafen scored 17 of her team-high 25. Both recorded double-doubles while grabbing 11 rebounds each (seven of them came on the offensive end for Watkins).<\/p>\n

Freshman Avery Howell<\/a><\/strong> scored eight of her 11 points during that strong fourth-quarter close by the Trojans. Rayah Marshall returned to action after missing the last game due to illness. She scored nine points and grabbed three rebounds.<\/p>\n

The win sets up a third matchup this season between the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins. The Bruins got into the final with a dominant showing against No. 3 seed Ohio State in a 75-46 win. UCLA beat Nebraska 85-74 in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

USC went 2-0 against UCLA this season, winning most recently 80-67 at Pauley Pavilion on March 1. Watkins scored 30 points in that game after scoring 38 in a win over the Bruins at Galen Center earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

USC is looking for back-to-back conference tournament titles after the Trojans won the Pac-12 Tournament as the No. 2 seed over No. 1 Stanford, 74-61. <\/p>\n

The post USC Trojans advance to Big Ten Tournament final against rival UCLA Bruins<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again, the USC Trojans got it done in the fourth quarter. The Trojans used…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}