Women’s NCAA Tournament roundup: Watkins goes down as USC, UCLA advance and rest of the West bows out

JuJu Watkins brushed aside hand and ankle injuries suffered in the NCAA Tournament opener as meaningless “knick knacks.”

“Nobody really cares,” USC’s star sophomore said. “So onto the next.”

Everybody cares about what happened next, in the first quarter of Monday’s second-round game against No. 9 seed Mississippi State.

Racing up court at Galen Center alongside the Bulldogs’ Chandler Prater, Watkins fell to the ground with a right knee injury. Prater was charged with a common foul.