The first half of Sunday afternoon’s Big Ten Championship looked familiar to anyone who had watched the first two battles between No. 2 USC and No. 4 UCLA.

Sophomore guard JuJu Watkins was hitting shots, the Bruins (30-2, 16-2 Big Ten) were struggling to run their usually dominant offense effectively and the Trojans were cruising. 13 seconds into the third quarter, graduate guard Talia von Oelhoffen nailed a triple to extend the USC (28-3, 17-1) lead to 13, and it looked like the Trojans were well on the way to breaking the hearts of their bitter rivals for the third time this season.

But when Watkins checked out of the game with 16 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, the sophomore was not on her way to take a victory lap this time — as she did after USC beat the Bruins in Westwood on March 1. Watkins went straight to the bench, where she was consoled by Associate Head Coach Beth Burns after the Trojans’ 72-67 defeat in Indianapolis.

It was a nightmare final 20 minutes for USC, who despite four made field goals in the final 1:13 of the game, shot an abysmal 22.2% from the field in the second half. The Trojans did not make a shot in the fourth quarter until that 1:13 mark — missing 15 shots in a row as the Bruins went on a 17-4 run to take and extend a lead.

“We’re a really good fourth quarter team typically, so of course, it was deflating to miss all those shots and get a little ragged in the third quarter,” said Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb in a postgame press conference. “But I thought we tried to put the foot on the gas in the fourth, and just couldn’t get to where we wanted to — either to the rim, to the free throw line or just get to our shots and knock them down. It happens sometimes.”

Watkins played all 40 minutes, finishing with 29 points and six rebounds, but it was far from her best performance. In the fourth quarter, it seemed as if the crowd, announcers and even her teammates were waiting for Watkins to get hot and rescue the game for the Trojans — but the sophomore was never able to regain control of the contest.

Watkins’ superstar counterpart, UCLA junior center Lauren Betts, was entirely in control when push came to shove Sunday. After struggling to make an impact on either end in the first half, Betts finally put together a dominant second half against the Trojans — after failing to do so in the teams’ two previous duels. The six-foot-seven junior had 13 points and three rebounds on 5-5 shooting in the second half — also coming up with three monster blocks on Watkins and graduate forward Kiki Iriafen in the fourth quarter.

The Trojans were never down some insurmountable deficit, but it never felt like the game was in reach in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t their night, and truly, it wasn’t their week in Indianapolis.

USC stumbled its way into the championship showdown with the Bruins — narrowly escaping defeat against Indiana (19-12, 10-8) in an 84-79 win Friday and Michigan (22-10, 11-7) in an 82-70 victory Saturday. Headed into the fourth quarters of the two games, the Trojans led the Hoosiers and Wolverines by a combined three points. Throughout the weekend, Gottlieb’s squad hardly looked like a dominant squad marching its way toward a Big Ten title.

But in spite of that, USC still began Sunday in the position it’s been fighting to be in all season — with a chance to win the Big Ten title and secure the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. And after No. 1 Texas (31-3, 15-1 SEC) fell to No. 5 South Carolina (30-3, 15-1 SEC) in the SEC Championship, it became clear that a victory for the Trojans would make them the top seed in the big dance.

Now? It is very unclear if USC will even be one of the four No. 1 seeds in the bracket. The final slot will likely go to either the Trojans or Longhorns — the two top-ranked squads in the nation going into Sunday, both of whom suffered conference championship game defeats. Needless to say, potentially having to go through the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed is not what Gottlieb and co. had in mind after their second consecutive victory over UCLA just nine days ago.

However, unfortunately for the selection committee, it’s tight at the top of women’s college basketball and one loss doesn’t necessarily mean anything for USC’s title chances. Beating a team as good as the Bruins three times in a row is a tall task, and few predicted that USC would take two of three meetings with UCLA before their first matchup on Feb. 13 at Galen Center.

“I think it’s always hard [playing a team] three times, even two times,” Watkins said. “Just knowing that we’ve already done our scout, they’ve done our scout, so figuring out ways to tweak it … We’re always grateful to play them because they push us and we push them.”

The hope for Gottlieb and USC will be that this defeat will do just that: push the Trojans into being a hungrier and more disciplined team when the NCAA Tournament kicks off in a few weeks.

After three tough games in three days, USC will now rest up with an eye on Selection Sunday in six days time — when the Trojans will find out what their path to the Final Four will look like.