LOS ANGELES >> If USC wants to win its first national women’s basketball championship in 41 years, the Trojans will have to find a way to get it done without star guard JuJu Watkins.

They notched their 30th win for the first time since 1986 by walloping ninth-seeded Mississippi State 96-59 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday night. But they lost Watkins to a season-ending right knee injury in the first quarter.

She was streaking down the court on a fast break with two Bulldogs defenders nearby when her knee bent awkwardly as she planted her right foot. She immediately crumpled to the court. Watkins had to be carried off, unable to put any weight on her leg. She will have surgery and then rehabilitate, USC said, without specifying her injury.

The sight of Watkins writhing in pain on the court, holding her injured knee while her teammates stood around her and coach Lindsay Gottlieb rushed to the 19-year-old’s side shocked the crowd of 7,808 at Galen Center.

“JuJu is a generational talent,” Mississippi State guard Jerkaila Jordan said. “She’s changed the game in so many ways at such a young age. Seeing her go down was really tough. I said my prayers for her.”

Losing Watkins just five minutes in on a non-contact play turned the home fans angry and they booed the Bulldogs the rest of the game. Buoyed by the raucous crowd, the top-seeded Trojans hit buzzer-beating shots at the end of the first, second and third quarters and ran their lead to 46 points in the fourth.

“I wouldn’t say this is our defining moment,” said Kiki Iriafen, the former Stanford star who scored a season-high 36 points. “It’s what we expect of ourselves. We expect to win in this tournament regardless if it’s going our way, we have people, we don’t have people. That’s the standard here.”

Next up is the Sweet 16 in Spokane where the Trojans (30-3) play fifth-seeded Kansas State (28-7) on Friday.

Even without Watkins, there is plenty of star power left in women’s March Madness with Paige Bueckers, Hannah Hidalgo and Lauren Betts still playing.

While the stars are shining on the game’s biggest stage, the smaller schools are not. There weren’t any major upsets or Cinderella stories heading into the second week of the women’s NCAA Tournament. For the first time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams, no team seeded 11th or lower advanced out the first round.

Of the 16 teams remaining, 15 are members of Power Four conferences, with UConn being the other. As usually is the case, the top 12 women’s teams in the NCAA Tournament all advanced to the Sweet 16, which begins Friday.

UConn’s Bueckers, who is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, played her final game at home and put on a show, tying her career high with 34 points. Hidalgo has helped Notre Dame regain its dominant form after the Fighting Irish slumped at the end of the regular season and conference tournament.

Betts has been dominant for UCLA in its first two games, averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds.

South Carolina still has a chance to become the first team to repeat in the women’s tournament since UConn won four in a row from 2013-16. The Gamecocks are doing it with a team effort — and a chip on their shoulder. They felt they should have been the overall top seed in the tournament — but weren’t.

Well, they’re back in the Sweet 16 with depth and a balanced attack. The Gamecocks’ reserves scored an NCAA-record 66 points in their opening win over Tennessee Tech.

Joining the top teams are a trio of 5-seeds — Kansas State, Tennessee and Mississippi. Alabama almost joined them as the fourth No. 5 to advance, but the Crimson Tide lost Monday in double overtime to Maryland.

While Tennessee is a Sweet 16 regular, Kansas State is making its first appearance since 2002. Second-seeded TCU is appearing in the Sweet 16 for the first time.