Monday night at Galen Center, No. 1-seeded USC cruised to a dominant 96-59 win over No. 9-seeded Mississippi State, advancing to the Sweet 16 in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1992-93 and 93-94.

Despite the wire-to-wire victory, there was no triumphant feeling inside Galen following the victory, and there were more Trojan tears than celebrations. 

That was because USC was, and will continue to be, forced to play without superstar sophomore guard JuJu Watkins. Just over five minutes into the game, Watkins suffered a gruesome right knee injury — revealed after the game to be a torn ACL — that will keep her out for the remainder of the season, and the next nine to 12 months. 

Galen, as loud as it’s ever been, had the wind knocked out of it when Watkins stayed down clutching her right leg. The arena was silent as Watkins was writhing in pain and crying on the court where she has ascended to stardom over the past two seasons. Her teammates quickly surrounded Watkins, trying to block her from cameras as the medical and coaching staff rushed over. Watkins was carried off the floor, unable to put any weight on her right leg.

“I’d be lying if I told you that I wasn’t rattled seeing JuJu on the floor and crying,” said Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb in a postgame press conference.

Multiple players were in tears after the game, being consoled by family members after learning the severity of the injury to Watkins — the leader of the team both on and off the court. 

“JuJu does a lot for this team. She’s a special player, and I feel like we owed it to her and to ourselves to make this win possible,” senior center Rayah Marshall said after the game. 

But in Watkins’ stead, graduate forward Kiki Iriafen did exactly what Gottlieb brought her to Los Angeles to do. The 22-year old took complete control against the Bulldogs (22-12, 7-9 SEC), emotionally and physically. From dropping 36 points and nine rebounds to dancing with Marshall to calm her down after tensions flared up in the third quarter, Iriafen was everything the Trojans needed her to be in a remarkably difficult moment and then some.

“It’s hard when you have such a key player not with you, but at the end of the day, we have to win the game,” Iriafen said in a postgame press conference. “Respectfully, nobody on Mississippi State cares that we lost her.”

Monday was not the first time Iriafen has shown an ability to thrive and lift her team in difficult moments. Last season, when Iriafen was at Stanford, star center Cameron Brink fouled out of the Cardinal’s Round of 32 battle against Iowa State. Iriafen stepped up in a major way, putting up 41 points and 16 rebounds to will her team into the Sweet 16, just like she did after Watkins’ injury exactly a year later. 

Monday’s game marked Iriafen’s most points in a Trojan uniform, and was the fifth 30-point game of her career. Exiting the game with 6:29 remaining, she fell four points shy of being the third player in women’s college basketball history to have multiple 40-point NCAA Tournament outings. 

Iriafen led the charge, but the Trojans got important contributions from their entire rotation. USC put up a season-high 29 assists, their most in a tournament game in at least 29 years and their most assists in any game since 2014.

“The ball was electric, we were moving that ball … and that’s what makes the win so grand,” Iriafen said. “It makes it super fun when everybody’s able to contribute, and we had a lot of energy.”

Marshall also had a strong showing in what was her last ever game at Galen. Growing up close by in South Central, Marshall has played all four years of her collegiate career for the Trojans. She put up 12 points, with nine rebounds and was a monster on defense, nabbing two steals and four blocks.

“[Marshall] came here when there were no fans, … so I’m very happy for her that she got to feel an energy like this for her last game in Galen. She deserves that,” Gottlieb said.

During Monday’s game, Marshall joined Lisa Leslie and Cheryl Miller as the only Trojans to record 300 career blocks, but that wasn’t even her most memorable moment of the night.

With the last seconds of the first half ticking away, Marshall caught a pass from freshman guard Avery Howell at the 3-point line — an unusual spot for the traditional post player — and let it fly from deep without hesitation. She banked the shot in as the buzzer sounded, lifting her arms up in triumph as her teammates swarmed her to celebrate her third 3-pointer of the season. 

“It was like a dream, and it didn’t even feel real,” Marshall said after the game. “I went into the locker room joking with my teammates after like I couldn’t believe [Howell] even threw the ball out to me. She was like, ‘I didn’t expect you to shoot it’ … That made tonight even more memorable for me.”

The game was extremely chippy and physical, especially after injuries to Watkins and sophomore guard Malia Samuels. But the Trojans were ready for the challenge, and Gottlieb noted they were motivated by comments before the game from a Mississippi State player that implied USC might not be ready for SEC-level physicality. 

“Our team came in with the mindset that we’re not going to get punked by anyone,” Howell said. “We were ready for whatever they threw at us in any form.”

Howell, alongside fellow freshman guards Kayleigh Heckel and Kennedy Smith, organized the Trojans exceptionally well on both ends in Watkins’ absence. Howell and Heckel combined for 31 points and 12 assists, while Smith led the charge for the Trojan defense — forcing graduate guard Jerkaila Jordan, the Bulldogs’ leading scorer, into a rough 6-24 shooting night.

Amid the game’s tensions, the crowd at Galen was as raucous as it has been all season. The Bulldogs were booed every time they touched the ball, and their cheerleading squad was loudly jeered at halftime. After the game, when Marshall confronted a few Mississippi State players in the handshake line, several Trojans put their hands up to encourage the fans to let the visitors hear it once again.

“[That] just shows how ride or die our fans are, and we really appreciate them. I wish we could take them to Spokane and everywhere with us,” Iriafen said. “I think they gave us a lot of energy, especially when things weren’t going our way at the beginning.”

While most of the Galen crowd may not make it, the Trojans will now venture to Spokane, where they have a clash with No. 5-seeded Kansas State (28-7, 13-5 Big 12). It’ll be just the second game for USC in the last two years without Watkins, but after Monday’s encouraging team effort, the Trojans remain confident they can hang with any team in the nation.

USC will take on the Wildcats Saturday night at 5 p.m. with a place in the Elite Eight on the line.