The Madness of March is already here, and the NCAA tournament hasn’t even started yet.

USC women’s basketball (25-5, 13-5 Pac-12) blew a 16-point lead, let UCLA (25-6, 13-5) force overtime and had to come back from 4 down in the first extra period to force another frame. 

But it did not matter in the end, as the Trojans came out with the 80-70 win over their crosstown rivals to advance to the Pac-12 tournament championship game against Stanford (28-4, 15-3).

“Words aren’t gonna feel like it does it justice,” said Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb. “What an epic evening for women’s college basketball, for our program, for the [Los Angeles] rivalry.”

The Trojans were able to build up a 6-point lead with 1:47 left in the second overtime period, a deficit the Bruins just could not come back from, as USC built its lead up to 10 points to close out the game.

March is where legends are made, and guard JuJu Watkins continued to prove why she was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, knocking down 33 points despite having to come out of the game twice due to apparent injuries.

“Even when I went out, I knew I had to get back in because I think my team needed me,” Watkins said. “It’s just an ankle, nothing I’m not used to. I feel great, ready to play on Sunday.”

It was a tale of two quarters in the first half, as the Trojans rocketed out of the gate, building a 24-8 lead after the opening frame. Watkins was at the forefront, scoring 9 points despite only playing six minutes. She had to head back to the locker room 48 seconds into the game because of an apparent leg injury.

The second quarter was an entirely different affair, with the Bruins closing the gap to 6 points by halftime. UCLA’s graduate guard Charisma Osborne turned it on in the second frame, scoring 10 of her 21 points in the period. Osborne continues to be a force against the Trojans, totaling 46 points across the last two Crosstown Showdown matchups.

UCLA continued to inch its way back in a low-scoring third frame to make it a 3-point game heading into the final 10 minutes. The teams combined for a meager 17.9% shooting percentage in the third quarter that showcased the third- and fourth-best defense in the Pac-12 when it comes to field goal percentage.

The Bruins completed the comeback as senior forward Angela Dugalić knocked down a triple with 1:38 left to send the game to overtime.

“Our team has been through it, very recently actually,” said graduate guard Kaitlyn Davis, referencing USC’s overtime mentality. “So I felt like all of us collectively came into it with the confidence, especially when the game was that tight knowing that we can lock in and we can get the win because we’ve done it before.”

For the second-straight USC-UCLA matchup, USC’s junior center Clarice Akunwafo had a big impact on the game, slowing down UCLA’s sophomore center Lauren Betts when the two were on the court together. The 6-foot-7 Betts mustered 17 points but did not score a single time with Akunwafo on the court across the USC center’s eight minutes of play.

“[Akunwafo] is an incredible athlete, just pound for pound physically, and she’s a great individual defender,” Gottlieb said. “And I went into the game saying, they have one Lauren Betts and we have [junior center Rayah Marshall], [Akwunafo] and [Davis] who can battle her. … [Akwunwafo] knows her role, she plays a role.”

Akunwafo was that much more important, as her counterpart, Marshall, only scored 7 points on 3-for-12 shooting to break a streak of three straight double-doubles.

Akunwafo and Marshall could not contain Betts on the boards, as UCLA’s center brought down a game-high 18 rebounds. As a team, the Trojans outrebounded the Bruins 56-54 and have now bested their opponents on the boards in 11 straight games.

Bruins committed 21 personal fouls in regulation — a total they had not reached in seven games — helping contribute to their downfall. Their 28 total fouls were the highest they had hit since the last time UCLA met USC on Jan. 14.

The win marks one of the Trojans’ last Pac-12 conference matchups, with USC making the move to the Big Ten conference for the 2024-2025 season.

The Trojans will now have a rest day before taking on the Cardinal in the Pac-12 tournament championship game at MGM Grand Garden Arena, with tipoff scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m.