The Los Angeles stars shined on Friday, but does it continue on Saturday?
The postseason is known for all the excitement, tension and expectations. Each year, we see players separate themselves and become the key factor in their team’s deep run into the postseason.
In all four games of the women’s Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, an individual performance rose above the rest to propel their programs to the semifinals. Here are those players that helped their side overcome deficiencies and live to play another day.
No. 1 USC Trojans defeat No. 9 Indiana Hoosiers 84-79
Player of the Game: JuJu Watkins – USC
Stats: 31 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals
Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images
Before the first game of the quarterfinals tipped off at the Big Ten Tournament, the USC Trojans lost starting forward and member of the All-Big Ten Defensive Team Rayah Marshall. That put more pressure on Watkins to be what USC needed on both sides of the court and Watkins stepped up to the challenge, in typical Watkins fashion.
Watkins gave the ball away six times, but had three steals and a block on top of her game-leading 31 points.
“How she has developed into the two-way player that she is really remarkable,” said head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. “Think about what she handles on the offensive end. We get her the ball as much as we can. There’s multiple bodies draped on her. She takes a lot of contact. She’s a physical player. Then we say, ‘oh, by the way, impact the game defensively too.’ She takes no breaks.”
When Indiana came back, feeding off basically a home crowd with Bloomington only 45 minutes away, Watkins took all the momentum out of their runs with either a stop on defense or taking offensive matters into her own hands.
The Big Ten Player of the Year played every bit of the role, and puts the Trojans one step closer to sweeping conference trophies in their first season out of the Pac-12.
Along with 21 points from forward Kiki Iriafen, Watkins and the Trojans overcame a sluggish start against an aggressive Indiana team to move into the second round against a team with similar skillsets, but far better execution.
No. 5 Michigan Wolverines defeat No. 4 Maryland Terrapins 98-71
Player of the Game: Jordan Hobbs – Michigan
Stats: 23 points, 4 steals, 4 rebounds
Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images
There could realistically be four players to point out from the second game of the day, not including Maryland’s Sarah Te-Biasu who scored 25 points and almost single-handedly helped the Terps overcome a 20-point first half deficit.
The talk around the Michigan Wolverines this season are the freshmen leading the team. Friday showed the team’s potential and how dangerous the Wolverines will be if everyone stays on the roster the next four years.
Freshmen guards Olivia Olson (fresh off a Co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year honor) and Syla Swords combined to score 43 points and dish out 13 assists. Point guard Mila Holloway only played 21 minutes due to foul trouble, but had eight assists. Her impact goes beyond productivity on offense because when Holloway was sitting for most of the second quarter, that is when the Terps spouted off 16 and eight-point runs.
For the great play of the three freshmen in Michigan’s complete rout of Maryland, the one who represented the Wolverines’ play the best was senior guard Jordan Hobbs.
JHobbs with her 4th triple of the game#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/cOc3uAm6X5
— Michigan Women’s Basketball (@umichwbball) March 7, 2025
On Feb. 17, the Wolverines went to College Park, Maryland and lost 85-77. In that game, Hobbs never went to the foul line once and played a subdued game. On Friday, in a game that featured frequently fouled stars like Maryland’s Shyanne Sellers and the Big Ten’s second leading free throw shooter Kaylene Smikle, it was Hobbs who led all players in foul calls received with seven.
Hobbs represented an aggressive Michigan team who not only learned lessons from two weeks ago but put it into immediate action in such a way that the Terps eventually gave up and kept starters on the bench for much of the fourth quarter.
“I think we just came in a lot more aggressive,” said Hobbs. “I think we attacked the rebounding battle and the defensive boards and that allowed us to push in transition. Ultimately our mindset was a lot more aggressive — getting paint touches, getting downhill, and not settling.”
Michigan will need more of that on Saturday if they hope to upset the No. 1 Trojans.
No. 2 UCLA Bruins defeat No. 10 Nebraska Cornhuskers 85-74
Player of the Game: Lauren Betts
Stats: 23 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists
UCLA’s 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts has a way of not only towering over players, hitting layups with ease or blocking inside attempts but also forcing opposing paint players into making frustrating mistakes.
Friday was no different when the Cornhuskers tried to upset Betts and the Bruins.
Nebraska had an advantage over other sides in the conference, coming with a powerful upperclassmen post presence of their own in center Alexis Markowski. The Cornhusker playing in her final season is scoring more than any previous season and leading Nebraska to their third day of the tournament. But when going up against Betts, Markowski had frustrating fouls all game.
Markowski only played 26 minutes due to foul trouble. In that time, the center scored five less points than her season average of 16.6 points per game, grabbed only four rebounds, half of her season average and shot only 4-of-13 after entering the game shooting at 48.8 percent.
Betts was every bit the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honor that she won on Tuesday, but what made the performance stand out was Bett’s last time on the court. Against the USC Trojans on March 1, Betts scored 11 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. A double-double, sure, but below her usual scoring and against the USC Trojans for a chance at the Big Ten title. It ended in a lopsided loss for the Bruins.
The junior wasn’t interested in applauding her big performance.
“The great thing about Lauren is that she knows this was a by-product of way more important work she did in the dark all week, and she was really disappointed with herself and our team in terms of how we performed in our last game at home,” said head coach Cori Close. “It was not easy.”
No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes defeat No. 11 Iowa Hawkeyes 60-59
Player of the Game: Cotie McMahon
Stats: 18 points and 3 rebounds
Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images
If there was a competition of tough weeks in the world of college basketball, Ohio State forward Cotie McMahon gave Betts a run for her money.
McMahon faced backlash that reached the national level after showing the Maryland student section two middle fingers from the bench following a 93-90 overtime loss where McMahon fouled out late.
Publications as large as Fox News ran the story and it prompted everyone to have an opinion one way or another. Those moments have a way of distracting a player or a team and Ohio State entered Friday sitting on the cusp of not hosting March Madness games in two weeks.
Ohio State had to make up for their last loss against the Iowa Hawkeyes, who are one of the hottest teams in the conference. From the jump, McMahon was aggressive, hitting two three-point shots to start the scoring for the Buckeyes. However, McMahon ran into foul trouble for a second consecutive game and it looked like it could be another frustrating day for Ohio State and its star junior forward.
The Scarlet and Gray kept pushing and came away with a hard fought victory that McMahon took across the finish line in an unexpected way. McMahon came into Friday’s rivalry matchup with a 65.6 percent free throw percentage. It showed in the fourth quarter when the forward missed two of four attempts while the Hawkeyes chipped away at a two-possession Ohio State lead.
With six seconds remaining, and the Buckeyes down a point, McMahon was fouled with a chance to put her team in the lead. After a week of noise off the court, Gainbridge Fieldhouse was even louder with Iowa fans trying to disrupt the junior’s concentration.
“Honestly, I didn’t really hear anything,” said McMahon. “I was kind of cussing myself out, like if I don’t make these free throws, then we’re going home. So I just made them.”
Saturday’s Game Schedule
3:00 p.m. ET: No. 1 USC Trojans vs. No. 5 Michigan Wolverines
5:30 p.m. ET: No. 2 UCLA Bruins vs. No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes
Both games air live on the Big Ten Network, or stream on the FOX Sports App
