– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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INDIANAPOLIS — It was 10 seasons ago, and the University of Maryland not only became a new member of the Big Ten Conference, its women’s basketball team wasted no time in showing who was boss on the hardwood by winning three consecutive conference regular season and tournament championships in its first three seasons in the league. Ten years on, and a couple of new kids on the block, all the way from the Golden State of California, are looking to pull off the same trick in the Midwest.
The quarterfinal round of the 2025 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament featured the top two seeds in action, regular-season champion USC and UCLA, both in their inaugural seasons in the conference. The allure of JuJu Watkins is real and powerful in college basketball and in sports in general, and her star power could match that of Caitlin Clark’s in short order, especially if the former does what the latter did during her times playing in the conference tournament, winning three Big Ten Tournament championships. The march to the first Big Ten conference tournament title hit an awkward patch in the afternoon, but the Trojans got the job done by defeating No. 9 Indiana 84-79 in Friday’s opener. The Women of Troy were only up by two heading into the fourth, and were still ahead by just three with 3:30 remaining before back-to-back threes, from Talia Von Oelhoffen and Watkins, opened up the margin to nine. Watkins finished the game with 31 points and 10 rebounds, scoring eight points in each of the first three quarters before finishing with seven points and five rebounds in the final stanza.
USC’s Tinseltown rival, UCLA, held on to the No. 1 overall ranking in the AP Poll for more weeks than any other school this season, but were swept by the Trojans for their only two losses of the season — and enough to relegate them to the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Also like USC, the Bruins struggled in the first half before turning it on in the second to come away with an 85-74 victory over tenth-seeded Nebraska in the first game of the evening session. The triumvirate of Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez scored 65 of the Bruins’ 85 points, with Betts nearing a triple-double with a game-high 28 points to go along with 13 rebounds (eight offensive), seven blocks and five assists.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday’s quarterfinal round, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Aaron J. Thornton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 36 pictures in total.
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