It’s the match up everyone wants to see…again.
The USC Trojans are set to play the UCLA Bruins on Saturday for a battle over the crown—and the Big 10 title— in Los Angeles.
The last time these two squads competed, the No. 4 Trojans took home the dub thanks to a dominate 38-point performance by Juju Watkins. The Watts-native has been leading a renaissance in women’s college basketball ever since her SLAM 248 cover dropped last year, but she isn’t competing for a national title alone: both senior guard McKenzie Forbes and junior Rayah Marshall are second and third in scoring, respectively. If the Trojans win tonight, they’ll be in a position to earn the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
On the other side of town is the No. 2 ranked Bruins, who until that matchup against USC not too long ago had been undefeated. Led by a double-double machine of Lauren Betts and a smooth, shifty guard in Kiki Rice, UCLA has been destroying opponents by upwards of 30-plus points. To defeat USC, they’ll need to remain poised and execute, especially in the paint and from the three-point line—back in February, their shooting woes gave them trouble against the Trojans.
We’ll see what happens next, but until then, get the popcorn ready…
/Winners%20&%20Losers%20header%20template%20(2).webp?ssl=1 "5 Winners and 2 Losers from the first 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain – who was left itching to make up for lost ground?")
