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Was it meant to end in such an ironic way? The school that initiated the departures that destroyed the Pac-12 won the final Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament title. Tournament champion USC also showed that despite the fact that JuJu Watkins has been the story this year, it has other players and focusing too much on Watkins has its own risks.

Stanford focused its attention on Watkins after she torched them for 51 points in their only meeting during the regular season. They doubled her, forced her to the left, and made sure she didn’t get hers.

She didn’t get hers. She scored a season-low nine points, but the commitment to keeping her off the scoreboard enabled McKenzie Forbes to go off for 26 points and earn the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player nod. It also allowed USC to grab one offensive rebound after another as Stanford was not in position to keep the Women of Troy off the boards.

Rayah Marshall had a double-double with 10 points and 18 rebounds. She was a linchpin in getting USC extra shots.

As a team, USC grabbed 48 rebounds—18 on the offensive end of the court. That was a 20-rebound edge for the Trojans over the Cardinal.It was just the second time all season that Stanford was outrebounded. The only previous time was in the early-season loss to Gonzaga.

USC never looked bothered despite Watkins not scoring until the end of the first half when she hit two free throws. They looked comfortable in the knowledge that they had others who could step up and take advantage of the attention being paid to the freshman star. It was a fitting end to an extremely entertaining five days in Las Vegas.

The first two games of the tournament were concerning. Blowouts by Colorado over Oregon and California over Washington State weren’t terribly entertaining on opening day. Once game three between Arizona and Washington got underway, though, every contest was compelling and hard-fought in a fitting end to the conference and a season for the ages.

The Wildcats and Huskies split their two games in the regular season. Both were close, with a two-point UW win in Seattle and a triple-overtime UA win in Tucson. The third installment was just as compelling.

Both teams were fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives. Arizona outscored Washington in every quarter but not by much. The five-point advantage in the third kept the Wildcats on top and moving forward.

In the final game of opening day, Arizona State came out to show something against Utah. The Utes were selected to finish first in the league this year, but they ended up missing a first-round bye. The Sun Devils weren’t ready to give up despite winning just three conference games this season.

ASU won the opening quarter. Utah was strong in the second and third frames, securing the win and the right to advance to play No. 1 seed Stanford. Trayanna Crisp and Jalyn Brown didn’t go quietly into the offseason, though. Crisp had 19 and Brown scored 15 for ASU.

The second day may have been all chalk, but it showed why winning in the Pac-12 has been so difficult all year. After the games of Mar. 10, nine of the top 10 strengths of schedule belonged to Pac-12 teams. All 12 Pac-12 teams were in the top 18 for NET strength of schedule (SOS).

Things got started on day two with a double-overtime thriller between Colorado and Oregon State. That’s just a matchup between the Associated Press’ No. 18 and No. 13 teams in the country.

The Buffs had a prime opportunity to advance to the semifinals. They were leading 45-36 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Beavs outscored them 17-8 to force an extra period. CU went 3 for 12 from the field when they were trying to close things out and pull off the first upset of the tournament.

Colorado scored the first five points of the first overtime but couldn’t hold that lead, either. OSU outscored the Buffs 10-5 over the final three minutes. Only a jumper by Jaylyn Sherrod with 10 seconds left gave CU the new hope provided by a second overtime.

The second OT was a battle from the free throw line. OSU won that battle, going 14 for 18 from the line and 4 for 4 from the field in the second extra period. Up to that point, the Beavs had only been awarded five free throws in 45 minutes of play. CU couldn’t quite keep pace, going 4 for 9 from the field and 7 for 7 from the line.

The second quarterfinal offered the makings of the first upset of the tournament yet again. California took it to Stanford in the early going. Cameron Brink was taken out of the game with three fouls in the first half. The Golden Bears led by eight at the end of 20 minutes.

The Cardinal found their footing and got their star back in the second half. They pulled away, outscoring the Bears 20-10 in the third and 20-11 in the fourth for a 71-57 victory that looked much easier than it was.

The third game was a rematch of a double-overtime game from the final week of the regular season. USC won that game over Arizona, pulling out the 95-93 victory despite playing without Watkins for almost 12 minutes at the end. She fouled out with just under two minutes to go in the fourth quarter in Tucson.

The rematch was just as compelling. USC rushed out to a 13-0 lead, but Arizona didn’t give in. Arizona lost the opening quarter 20-9 then won the second 16-10. It was a five-point game at the half.  

The Wildcats won the third quarter, as well, cutting the lead to four as the two teams went into the final 10 minutes. That’s when USC turned up the defense and turned UA over four straight times to go up by as many as 12 points. Arizona fought back but couldn’t overcome the two big USC runs to start the first and fourth quarters. There was no overtime in this game, but Arizona showed the committee that it could play against the best.

Utah and UCLA—the second matchup of Top 25 teams in the Pac-12 quarterfinals—showed just how balanced the Bruins are this season. Utah had more double-digit scorers than UCLA, but the Bruins weren’t just about the offense. They outrebounded the Utes 42-27.

The offense wasn’t bad, either. UCLA hit 48.1 percent of its shots from the field. Utah connected on 35 percent of its field goals and went 9 for 30 from the 3-point line. It was enough for the Bruins to outscore the Utes by a few points each quarter.

UCLA finally pulled away in the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead, but it mostly just felt quietly in control throughout.

The semifinals were all chalk. No. 1 seed Stanford was up against No. 4 seed Oregon State in one game. The two teams headed to the Big 10—UCLA and USC—were having one last Pac-12 crosstown rivalry game in the other.

Stanford beat Oregon State twice in the regular season. It might be difficult to beat a good team three times in one season, but the Cardinal found a way. It just took a while to settle in.

Oregon State went up by 16 halfway through the second quarter, but Stanford started reeling them in after that. It was an eight-point game at the half.

The Cardinal kept up the momentum out of the locker room and took the lead at the 4:33 mark in the third quarter. They never trailed again.

The Beavers struggled to shoot the ball, finishing with a 35.9 percent success rate in field goals and 4 for 18 from the 3-point line. Going up against a Cardinal team that hit 44.6 percent of its field goals and an even better 46.7 percent of its outside shots, it wasn’t a recipe for success. Getting outrebounded 41-36 didn’t help close that gap, either.

Who would Stanford face in the finals? It would be a story either way. The other team would either include former Cardinal Lauren Betts or it would have Watkins, who torched Stanford in their earlier meeting.

It took a long time to decide, even though it didn’t look like it would when the game started.

Like its game against Arizona, USC came out strong. The Trojans led UCLA 24-8 after the first quarter. UCLA won the other three quarters, but that big hole at the beginning of the game set a tone.

USC still had a six-point lead at the half, but UCLA kept chipping away. The Bruins won the third and fourth quarters by identical 14-11 scores, but they led the final quarter by as many as five. They went cold with 4:05 to go.

UCLA hit 59 points on the scoreboard and stalled. The Bruins did not score another point in regulation, going just over four minutes. The only saving grace was that USC only managed to score five points in that period, pushing it to overtime.

UCLA’s offense stalled again in the first extra period, going up by four with 57 seconds left. After scoring just four points over the first four minutes of overtime, USC scored four in less than a minute to salvage the game and go to another overtime.

USC finally took it over in the final period. Kaitlyn Davis scored the first bucket of the second overtime and the Trojans never trailed.

The first two rounds were crucial for the Pac-12 bubble teams. Of the four teams considered on the bubble heading into the tournament—Arizona, California, Washington, and Washington State—Cal ended up tied with Washington State for the best record but the Golden Bears had the worst NET by far.

Arizona, Washington, and Washington State all played tougher schedules than the Golden Bears with the Wildcats having the second-strongest SOS in the country. The Cougars have the highest NET at 29, but they had their struggles after losing Charlisse Leger-Walker for the season and that could be held against them.

The Wildcats stand at No. 34 in the NET as of Mar. 12. The Huskies are No. 42, and the Golden Bears are No. 59.

On the other end of the spectrum, the conference final likely influenced the top seeds in the NCAA Tournaments. With itstheir win, USC likely joins Stanford putting two Pac-12 teams on the No. 1 seed line.

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