NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Even a six-minute scoring slump wasn’t enough to shake JuJu Watkins and her No. 8 USC women’s basketball team. USC watched a seven-point lead melt away at the hands of a fierce Penn State squad in the fourth quarter. The Trojans trailed by six until Watkins broke the silence with two minutes to go, shouldering the load and scoring the final seven points of the game as USC topped the Nittany Lions 71-70 to stay perfect on the year at 5-0. Watkins finished with her first career double-double on 31 points and 12 rebounds, as USC capped a victorious visit to the Bahamas at the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Classic. Penn State goes to 5-1 after tonight’s heart-stopping finish in Nassau.
The lead changed hands 11 times in the first half, with USC shrugging off an early 9-0 run by the Nittany Lions and getting the last word of the half with a buzzer-beating bucket from half court by JuJu Watkins, lifting USC ahead 35-34 at the break. USC was shooting 41.4 percent from the floor to that point, just a beat behind Penn State’s 41.7 percent effort. USC also had the edge on the boards 21-17 through those first 20 minutes. The intense competition continued, with USC wrapping up at 40.4 percent overall from the floor and PSU at 40.6. USC was 9-of-18 from 3-point range to outpace PSU’s 5-of-16 effort, and USC wound up ahead on the boards 37-34.
Freshman Watkins’ 31 points led all scorers on the night, and marked the most points by any player in a game at the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Classic. She went 11-of-14 from the free-throw line and secured her first double-double as a Trojan with her game-high 12 rebounds. Rayah Marshall also notched a double-double — her third of the season and 23rd of her career — with 11 points and 10 boards. Penn State had three players finish in double digits, led by an 18-point effort from Shay Ciezki along with 10 points apiece from Makenna Marisa and Kylie Lavelle.
It was a game of scoring spurts out of the games as USC answered a 4-0 PSU start with a bucket from JuJu Watkins and a 3-pointer from Kayla Padilla in the first three minutes of play. USC would get ahead 11-7 on a three-point play from Watkins, and the game would lock up even twice in the next two minutes. Penn State got hot with a 9-0 rally to lead it 21-14 before McKenzie Forbes broke the cycle with a take to the hoop and then the USC defense forced a shot clock violation out of the Nittany Lions and kept them…
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