LOS ANGELES — There was no Hollywood ending for Mississippi State in the NCAA Tournament, unless you count the kind horror movie characters who are offed halfway through the story get.

No. 1 seed Southern California roared to a 20-point lead by the end of the first quarter, and endured the loss of All-American Juju Watkins to crush Mississippi State 96-59 in the second round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament on Monday.

Kiki Iriafen finished with 36 points and nine rebounds for USC (30-3), and Avery Howell scored 18. Five USC players reached double figures.

“We’ve got to keep it real. We got our butt kicked by a really good team. I thought they played inspired when JuJu went down and this place went to another whole level,” Mississippi State coach Sam Purcell said.

Southern California lost Watkins to a knee injury in the first quarter.

Watkins, who was already playing on a sprained ankle suffered in a first-round blowout of UNC Greensboro, was driving toward the basket on a fast break when her right knee gave out. She was carried to the locker room, then taken to a hospital. Later in the night, USC announced she had a torn ACL.

“I’d be lying if I told you that I wasn’t rattled seeing JuJu on the floor and crying. I mean, this is a human game. And so tried my best to be what I needed to be for the team, but internally it’s a lot,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said.

JuJu Watkins was carried off the court and taken to the locker room after suffering an injury on this play. pic.twitter.com/zFgm8PkVnu

— ESPN (@espn) March 25, 2025

The loss of their best player and team leader only seemed to inspire the Trojans, not hinder them. They scored the first 11 points of the game and made 9 of 14 shots in the first quarter to take a 28-8 lead.

Mississippi State (22-12) stopped the bleeding for a moment in the second quarter, but USC finished on a 12-4 run to lead 50-27 at halftime. Rayah Marshall banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put an exclamation point on an absolutely dominant first half for the Trojans.

“Credit to Mississippi State for getting to this point. But I think what you saw here was a really good, determined team that had something to play for, and you saw the results,” Gottlieb said.

Mississippi State had nine turnovers in the first half and only made 8 of 30 shots from the field. It finished shooting 31.3 percent (20-for-64) and had 20 turnovers that led to 27 points for USC.

“We talked about getting off to a great start. I thought we had great prep. You saw a great Cal game where we fought like no other,” Purcell said. “And when you play a team like this, you don’t want to get punched in the face. I thought obviously first call of the game on Madina was hard and next thing you know I’m burning a timeout and it’s 11-0 to start the game.”

It was certainly a disappointing finish to an otherwise good season for the Bulldogs. They had their third 20-win season in a row under Purcell, returned to the NCAA Tournament after a one-year absence, and beat California in their first-round game. Then they ran into a buzzsaw in round two.

“That’s what I’m prideful of. We put together another 20-win season and competed in the toughest league in the country. We’ve just got to be real. Tonight was not our night. USC deserves all the flowers. They were unbelievable and the better team,” Purcell said. “We can’t let one night like tonight derail what a great year we had to get this program back. And now it’s maintaining that energy and only building off of it.”