"She owns UCLA" - Fans go wild over JuJu Watkins gesture towards UCLA student section after Big Ten title win

USC star JuJu Watkins put on a show at Pauley Pavillion as the No. 4 Trojans trounced the No. 2 UCLA Bruins 80-67 on Saturday to clinch the Big Ten regular season title. Watkins tallied 30.0 points, three rebounds and five assists in the game.

Watkins was booed by UCLA fans every time she had the ball and during her postgame news conference, USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb addressed how her competitive star handled the attention.

“The amount of attention she gets, the scrutiny, the positives — it’s a lot,” Gottlieb said “But the ability to focus and say, ‘What do I need to do for me to be at my best and do what the team needs to do to win?’ That’s the mental aspect. We have learned to appreciate the greatness of our stars and also value what everyone else does."

At the end of the game, JuJu Watkins stared down the UCLA fans and held four fingers down indicating the Trojans' dominance over the Bruins.

"It will be so sweet when we take her and USC down in the Sweet 16. 🍬," one fan said.

Some fans were hyped by Watkin's passionate celebration.

"She owns UCLA," one fan said.

"JuJu's celebration says it all - USC dominated UCLA and the fans are loving it," another fan said.

"Let them know JuJu! #FightOn," one fan said.

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UCLA coach praises JuJu Watkins

JuJu Watkins has been among the frontrunners to win the National Player of the Year alongside Notre Dame Fighting Irish's Hannah Hidalgo and UCLA Bruins star Lauren Betts.

The games against UCLA have only improved her stock in the race to be crowned the best player in college basketball after earlier tallying 38.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists in the team's clash in February that ended the Bruins' unbeaten streak.

After draining four 3-pointers and registering 23.0 points in the first half against UCLA on Saturday evening, Bruins coach Cori Close came up with a contingency plan to stop the prolific JuJu Watkins. During Close's postgame news conference, she detailed the lengths to which the team went to stop Watkins.

"We did make the adjustment in the second half that we started switching the ball screens more," Cori Close said. "We started having some different rotations that we tried to have to give JuJu some different looks, and I thought we defended much better in the second half. But it's really hard."

After a slump in end product in January, JuJu Watkins has caught fire at the right moment for the USC Trojans who are projected by bracketologists to be a 1-seed at the upcoming March Madness. Last year, coach Lindsay Gottlieb's team fell short at the Elite Eight stage and this year, they have kicked it up a notch and the presence of Watkins and talented forward Kiki Iriafen adds to the aura of the team.