INDIANAPOLIS — They stormed from the bench to mob one another at midcourt, streamers and confetti falling from the rafters.
Finally, after so much had gone wrong against their rivals in two defeats during the regular season, the UCLA Bruins mustered the ultimate rebuttal.
They are the Big Ten tournament champions.
The Bruins gleefully put on championship hats, tears flowing amid the smiles as they celebrated a come-from-behind 72-67 victory over USC in the title game Sunday afternoon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
It was UCLA’s first tournament championship since it won the Pac-10 title in 2006 after the second-seeded Bruins outscored the top-seeded Trojans 37-22 in the second half.
“Thankful and humbled to watch them persevere, to grow, to find ways to win, to be committed to selflessness, just so grateful,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “This group just said, ‘We’ll find a way.’ There’s no panic.”
Once trailing by 13 points early in the third quarter, UCLA (30-2) put the clamps on JuJu Watkins after the Bruins stopped repeatedly fouling her. The USC superstar had 18 of her 29 points in the first half, making only four of 15 shots after halftime.
“We struggled in the second half,” Watkins said bluntly after failing to match the efficiency of the first two games in the rivalry, when she scored 38 points at the Galen Center and 30 points at Pauley Pavilion while helping the Trojans (28-3) win the conference’s regular-season title.
Meanwhile, Bruins center Lauren Betts made plenty of big plays in the final minutes, swatting a Watkins shot and powering through a double team for a layup that put UCLA up 66-60. Betts finished with 17 points, five rebounds and four blocks on the way to earning the tournament’s most outstanding player award as UCLA band members serenaded her by chanting her name.
Kiki Rice and Londyyn Jones added 13 points apiece for the Bruins. After climbing a set of stairs to reach the postgame interview session, Betts held up a phone for a selfie alongside Rice and Jones.
“Kind of speechless right now, I’m not going to lie,” Betts said.
Added Rice: “We came ready to play, so just proud of everyone.”
Watkins passed Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, for the second-most points scored through their first two college seasons. Watkins’ 1,684 points trails only Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell (1,762), with as many as six games left to catch Mitchell.
That will serve as little consolation given how her team folded. The Trojans made just two of 15 three-pointers in the second half.
Both teams were sloppy, the Bruins forcing 19 turnovers while withstanding 24 of their own. After Jones lost her handle on the ball with an open lane toward the basket, Close clapped in encouragement.
Once UCLA stopped fouling Watkins, she fell into an offensive funk. The Bruins used a 16-2 surge spanning the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth to take a 58-54 lead after Rice grabbed the rebound on her own miss for a putback.
The UCLA fans behind the team bench were standing and cheering at the end of a third quarter that the Bruins finished with a flurry to pull within 54-52. A Timea Gardiner three-pointer sparked a 10-2 run that also included five points from Betts on a jump hook in which she was fouled, and a midrange jumper.
This was a moment that might have felt like a lifetime in the making for Close, who had always come up short during her first 13 seasons at the school in the bid for a conference regular-season or tournament title.
USC guard JuJu Watkins, right, drives on UCLA forward Timea Gardiner during the first half Sunday.
Whether it was the longstanding dominance of Stanford or pockets of brilliance from Oregon or Oregon State before the emergence of Watkins and the Trojans, Close’s teams could never break through. Until Sunday.
After climbing a ladder to snip the final strands of net on one basket, Close twirled the nylon over her head as UCLA fans who had clambered onto the floor roared.
The novelty of two teams from Los Angeles meeting halfway across the country to decide the champion of a league with Midwestern roots was on display inside an arena usually packed with Nebraska red and Iowa black.
A little more than a half hour before the game, the Bruins might have felt at home as their student band conducted a pregame roll call. A few minutes later, directly across the court, the USC band played “Conquest,” with their counterparts from UCLA adding their own spin at the end by yelling, “Go Bruins!”
Things were intense from the opening jump ball, which resulted in another jump ball only three seconds later after UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez and USC’s Kennedy Smith fought for a loose ball. They stepped toward center court for the do-over that went in the Trojans’ favor.
“It was a heavyweight fight,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said, “and I thought both teams brought the intensity for sure.”
USC was in a celebratory mood at halftime given the sequence that ended the second quarter. Clarice Akunwafo blocked a jumper by Elina Aarnisalo, triggering a fast break that ended with Kennedy Smith zipping a pass from under the basket to Avery Howell, who rose for a three-pointer that increased her team’s lead to 45-35.
Trojans players flapped towels in appreciation on the bench before storming onto the court to mob their teammates. Watkins had fueled her team’s double-digit lead with 18 points, partially on the strength of making seven of eight free throws.
She would get only two more attempts the rest of the way. The rest of the celebrating would belong to the Bruins.
Of course, there’s a chance they might not have the final say. These teams, both likely No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, could meet again about a month from now in the Final Four.
