Freshman phenom JuJu Watkins has been piling up accolades and awe-inspiring performances all season for the USC women's basketball team, and in one of the biggest games of the season Friday she fittingly commanded the spotlight.
And set herself apart in Trojans' lore.
Watkins scored a program-record 51 points to lead No. 15-ranked USC to a 67-58 win over No. 4 Stanford on the road at Maples Pavilion.
Watkins connected on 14 of 26 shots overall -- including 6 of 11 3-pointers -- and was 17 of 19 from the free throw line while adding 11 rebounds and 4 steals. She broke the USC women's basketball single-game scoring record previously set at 50 by Cherie Nelson in 1989. The 51 points are also the most scored by any Division I women's basketball player this season, while no other player in the Pac-12 has hit even the 40-point mark in a game.
Watkins, the top-ranked women's basketball recruit in the country coming into the season, has delivered on all the hype and expectations that accompanied her arrival at USC.
She's now averaging 27.2 points per game, which is second nationally behind only Iowa star Caitlin Clark (32.1). Watkins has now tallied seven games with at least 30 points — the most by a Trojan since Nelson had eight as a senior in 1988-89.
And she wasted no time Friday night commanding the spotlight. She connected on her first shot -- a 3-pointer -- a minute into the game and scored 25 of USC's first 31 points.
The game was tied 31-31 at halftime before the Trojans (15-4, 5-4 Pac-12) surged ahead with a 21-11 advantage in the third quarter. Watkins scored USC's first 12 points of that period and had 15 overall in the quarter.
Stanford cut the Trojans' lead to 55-52 with 3:25 remaining, but Watkins answered immediately with yet another 3-pointer. When the Cardinal later drew to within 58-56 with 2:17 left to play, McKenzie Forbes delivered a clutch jumper and Watkins followed the next possession with a pair of free throws to push the lead back to 6 points. For that matter, she scored the final 7 points of the game while hitting 7 of 8 foul shots down the stretch to close it out.
Forbes was the only other Trojan to score in double figures with 12 points, while two other players had 2 points each. Defensively, USC held Stanford to a season-low 31.6 percent shooting and a season-low 58 points.
USC should move back up in the national rankings with its third win over a top-10 opponent this season and second over a top-5 foe, which are both the most for any Trojans team since the 1985-86 season. This was also USC's first win at Maples Pavilion since the 2000-01 season.
