This is what collge rivalry basketball is all about.

The Bruins were ranked as the No. 2 team in the country. The Trojans were without their leading rebounder, junior center Rayah Marshall. They had to face 6-foot-7 sophomore center Lauren Betts. There were 10,657 fans in attendance.

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But that didn’t matter for USC (13-1, 3-1 Pac-12), who took down its archrival UCLA (14-1, 3-1) 73-65 at Galen Center on Sunday in a game where the Trojans led for 32:47 of the 40 minutes.

Luckily for the Trojans, Los Angeles is the city of stars — and USC had the biggest star of them all in freshman guard JuJu Watkins, who led all scorers with 32 points, 16 of those coming from the free throw line. Watkins showed no fear even though the Bruins were highly ranked, often going straight to the paint and looking for contact from Betts.

However, it was the team’s defensive play that Watkins was so impressed with.

“As a team, we’re just so eager on defense, very active,” Watkins said. “I feed off my teammates’ energy, [graduate guard Kayla Padilla] getting steals, [redshirt sophomore guard Taylor Bigby] getting steals. You just want to be a part of that. You want to contribute to your team.”

Even without Marshall, junior center Clarice Akunwafo had a large impact on the game, despite only scoring 5 points. Akunwafo was in charge of guarding Betts — who came into the top 10 matchup averaging 16 points and nine rebounds per game. The star sophomore only managed 10 points and three rebounds for the Bruins.

“[I’m] unbelievably impressed, but not surprised,” Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said of Akunwafo’s performance.

It was a good start that got it done for USC, as the Trojans held the Bruins to 30.4% shooting from the field in the first half, leading to a 15-point halftime lead. UCLA was able to chip away at USC’s daunting lead in the second half, as graduate guard Charisma Osborne scored all of her 25 points across the final two frames.

But the 13-point lead was too much for the Bruins to overcome. The Trojans hung on for the 8-point victory and secured their first win over their crosstown rival since 2020, breaking a nine-game UCLA winning streak over USC.

“We have winners,” Gottlieb said. “We have incredible people. It took a while for us to get this win since I’ve been here. But it’s really meaningful for our program. It’s not the last good thing that will happen, but we’re going to appreciate this day.”

Behind Watkins, graduate guard McKenzie Forbes was the most important offensive force for USC. Forbes, knocking down 18 points, was one of only three Trojans with over 10 points, as USC’s starters played for the bulk of the game — all five starters played for 31 or more of the 40 minutes. Only one of USC’s four players off the bench made it onto the scoresheet, but that didn’t matter when Watkins and Forbes combined for 50 points.

USC was able to avenge its only loss of the season — falling to UCLA on the road by 7 points Dec. 30 — and the victory moved them to the No. 6 spot of the Associated Press Top 25.

The Trojans did all of this in front of a 10,657-person crowd, the only time a USC women’s basketball game has hit five figures home or away. High-profile personalities like Trojan great Cheryl Miller, Chris Brown and Saweetie were just a few in the record-breaking crowd.

Watkins, Forbes and the Trojans will hope to use their second top-10 win of the season — the first coming against Ohio State Nov. 6 — as motivation for the rest of their season. It does not get any easier, as they have a road trip to the mountains to take on No. 20 Utah (12-5, 2-3) and No. 3 Colorado (15-1, 5-0).

“Any win in the Pac-12 is huge for morale, so I think you can’t take that for granted and you have to take that and build on it,” Forbes said. “That one only makes me more excited and more locked in. And I think I could speak for the whole team when I say that.”

USC will hope for another Pac-12 win when it travels to Utah to play the Utes on Friday at 7 p.m.