Tough opener - Pasadena Star-News

BIG TEN WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINALS

Tough opener

Watkins, Iriafen lead USC past tenacious Indiana and into semifinals

USC’s JuJu Watkins puts up a shot over Indiana’s Lilly Meister during Friday’s Big Ten Conference tournament quarterfinal game in Indianapolis. Watkins had 31 points and 10 rebounds in the Trojans’ victory. Michael Conroy / the associated press

Image

By Michael Marot

The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — JuJu Watkins scored 31 points, Kiki Iriafen added 21 and each grabbed 10 rebounds in their first Big Ten Tournament games, leading No. 2 USC to an 84-79 victory over Indiana on Friday in Indianapolis.

The Trojans (27-2) have now won all three games they’ve played in Indiana this season and will take an eight-game winning streak into today’s semifinal contest against fifth-seeded Michigan, which defeated fourth-seeded Maryland 98-71 in another tournament game later Friday.

Yarden Garzon had 23 points to lead the Hoosiers (19-12), making five of her six baskets from 3-point range. She also had eight rebounds and Shay Ciezki added 15 points as Indiana’s two-game winning streak ended.

The Trojans certainly didn’t take the easy route. They looked stale offensively, at times, struggled with fouls on defense and allowed the Hoosiers to hang around most of the game. The bottom line, though: USC survived and advanced.

Indiana made 24 of 25 free throws to stay close.

“We knew this was going to be work,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “We knew this was going to be a tough one. Indiana is a really good team. They’re an NCAA Tournament team. We’ll be rooting for them to make a second weekend and keep it going.”

It looked as if the Trojans might pull away when they used a 13-4 run to take a 55-48 lead late in the third quarter, but Indiana charged back within 59-57 entering the fourth. USC pulled away again with a 9-3 spurt to make it 71-63 with 5:15 to play.

The Hoosiers never recovered.

After Indiana cut the deficit to 71-68 late in the fourth, USC answered with back-to-back 3s from Talia von Oelhoffen and Watkins to take its largest lead of the game.

“I think knowing what’s on the line, all the games are going to be like that,” Watkins said. “We don’t expect to just go in there and blow the other team out because there’s so much on the line and this conference is so good.

“We always go in knowing that we’re going to play our best and do whatever it takes to win. Then it comes down to the intangibles and tough plays that win the game.”

The Hoosiers probably locked up an NCAA Tournament bid with Thursday’s win over Oregon. If there still were doubts, Friday’s game answered those. Indiana executed coach Teri Moren’s game plan almost to perfection and the result was closer than expected.

Now USC can look forward to a semifinal matchup with Michigan.

“This is March basketball,” Gottlieb said. “I’ve told the team a number of times, we get no bonus points for being the regular season champs. We get no bonus points for what we did yesterday, but we can derive from the success we’ve had what it is that makes us good. That you can carry forward with you all the time no matter what the circumstance presents.

“But we’re playing really good basketball teams from here on out.”