WBB’s NCAA Tournament run ends with loss to top-seeded USC

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
PORTLAND, Ore. – Residing as much as the hype, USC freshman All-American JuJu Watkins poured in 30 factors and scored 9 of her crew’s final 10 factors to assist the top-seeded Trojans maintain off fifth-seeded Baylor, 74-70, Saturday afternoon within the area semifinals on the Moda Heart. 
 
The Bears (26-8), taking part in of their first Candy 16 beneath third-year head coach Nicki Collen, had a four-point lead going into the fourth quarter and had been up by two with beneath 4 minutes to play. However USC (29-5) reeled off eight unanswered factors and survived a pair of 3-pointers by Sarah Andrews down the stretch. 
 
Watkins was 7-of-7 from the road within the fourth quarter and 12-of-13 for the sport, including six rebounds, 4 blocks and 4 assists. 
 
Andrews knocked down 5 3-pointers and scored a team-high 17 factors, however the senior guard missed a deep 3-pointer with about 10 seconds left that might have tied it up. Coming off a career-high 28 factors within the second-round win over Virginia Tech, Jada Walker chipped in with 15 factors and 7 assists. 
 
Sophomore Darianna Littlepage-Buggs had a double-double with 12 factors and 11 rebounds, whereas senior ahead Dre’Una Edwards had 9 factors and 12 boards to assist the Bears win the rebounding battle towards the taller Trojans, 44-41. This was simply the second time in 23 video games this season that Baylor misplaced whereas successful the battle of the boards. 
 
Complementing Watkins, junior ahead Rayah Marshall had a double-double as effectively with 11 factors and 16 rebounds; and Harvard switch McKenzie Forbes matched her season common with 14 factors. 
 
USC advances to the area finals for the primary time in 30 years and can face both third-seeded UConn (31-5) or seventh-seeded Duke (22-11) on Monday for a spot within the Last 4. The Bears had been denied a spot of their 11^th all-time Elite Eight and first since 2021, after they misplaced to UConn. 

GAME NOTES

• The five-seeded Baylor ladies’s basketball crew fell to top-seeded USC, 74-70, on the Moda Heart within the Candy 16 spherical of the 2024 NCAA Event on Saturday.
• The Bears’ look within the Huge Dance marked the Twentieth-straight for BU which is the fourth-longest energetic streak within the nation. 
• Baylor’s journey to the Candy 16 marked the thirteenth within the final 15 seasons and sixteenth in program historical past. 
• The Bears are 57-19 all-time within the NCAA Event. 
• BU’s look within the Candy 16 as a 5 seed marked the primary for the Bears in program historical past. The one different time Baylor was a 5 seed (2007), the Bears misplaced within the second spherical. 
• Senior Sarah Andrews led the Bears offensively with 17 factors, going a season-high 5-for-13 from 3-point vary. 
• Andrews has linked from behind the arc in 31 of 34 video games this season and hit three-or-more from vary 14 instances. 
• Andrews’ 5 treys are tied for the second-most in an NCAA Event recreation in program historical past and simply the third time a BU participant has hit 5 3-pointers in no less than the spherical of 16. 
• Together with her eighth level of the sport, Jada Walker reached 1,000 for her profession because the junior completed with 15 on the night time. She added team-high seven assists and completed with three rebounds in 35 minutes of motion. 
• A pair of Bears completed in double figures on the glass led by Dre’Una Edwards‘ 12 rebounds.
• Darianna Littlepage-Buggs added 11 rebounds to 12 factors, ending along with her fifth double-double of the season and nineteenth in her profession. 
• Littlepage-Buggs scored eight of her 12 factors within the third quarter. 
• Baylor bested USC on the boards, outrebounding the Trojans, 44-41. It marked the twenty third time this season that the Bears grabbed extra rebounds than their opponent.
• The Bears shot 34.6% from 3-point vary, marking the very best within the NCAA Event recreation for BU this yr.