The 5 greatest USC-UCLA rivalry moments this decade with Juju Watkins owning the top spot

The rivalry between USC and UCLA is one of the most historic in college sports, and it spans beyond just one sport. Every year, both schools compete for the Southern California Crosstown Cup, which is awarded to the school that wins the most games against each other. The last couple of years, the Cup has flip-flopped between the two programs.

The competition is tense between the two teams, whether or not they are good teams in a given sport. The rivalry provides memorable upsets, decides critical spots in the standings and even national championships. In the last five years, you can point out multiple top rivalry games between sports. Here are the top five rivalry games in the last five years.

5. USC Soccer 2024 Big Ten Tournament

USC sports, especially the women's, have been competing for serious hardware the last couple of years. Like many other sports, the Women of Troy have a history of winning national championships and dominating, but their program wasn't what it used to be.

That was until 2024, when head coach Jane Alukonis got the right pieces from the transfer portal to guide her team back into glory. In USC's first year in the Big Ten, they made it to the Big Ten tournament in dominant fashion with a record of 14-1-2. Then, in the final of the tournament, they had to take on undefeated UCLA.

No one had scored in the game until one of the 11 transfers, Maile Hayes, broke it open in the 36th minute. The Trojan defense kept it tight from there, and the team finished its season undefeated in conference play. From the beginning, the team had to overcome adversity as they were constantly on the road because their new stadium was being built. They finished off their year overcoming obstacles and made a deep run in the NCAA tournament, losing in the quarterfinals.

4. Men's Basketball (2023)

Being a USC men's basketball fan isn't the easiest right now. But when Boogie Ellis was on the team, man, was it easy. In 2023, unranked USC took on No. 8 UCLA at Galen Center, where they overcame a 15-point deficit in the game.

While the team was unranked, it had exciting players like Ellis, Drew Peterson and Kobe Johnson. Either of them could go on a run at any time and change the game. So, that's exactly what Ellis did.

Coming out of the half, USC was trailing by 12 points. The guard didn't stop pressing the gas and had a career-high 31 points, 27 of which were scored in the second half. By the end, it looked like a completely different game. The second-half surge saw the team score 52 points compared to UCLA's 27. The Trojans won the game, 77-64.

3. Football (2022)

There haven't been a lot of close football games between the crosstown rivals because USC has been dominating, winning the last eight of 10 games, but the 2022 game sticks out. It was Caleb Williams' Heisman year and Lincoln Riley's first season coaching the team. The No. 7 Trojans were taking on the No. 16 Bruins at the Rose Bowl.

USC had a 9-1 record and wanted to return the victory bell to campus. Plus, a ranked win would mean that they are even closer to the College Football Playoff. The game started incredibly slow. Williams couldn't get the offense going, and the Trojans were down 14-0 after the first quarter.

Then, they quickly picked up the pace, scoring 20 in the next quarter to make the score 21-20. The Heisman winner threw for 470 yards and two touchdowns in the win. As a team, they had a season-high 648 yards of total offense. The hopes were extremely high for this team from the fan base after an extremely gritty win.

2. USC Beach Volleyball (2024)

USC Beach Volleyball has undoubtedly been the most dominant sport at USC these last few years and arguably of all-time. In 2024, they were seeking a 4-peat for the national championship, and to make it sweeter, they did it against the Bruins

Before this, the two teams had battled six times against each other. Each match was intense, and they finished the season tied in head-to-head battles, 3-3. To break the tie, they met at the national championship, and the Trojans got the best of them.

Not only did they win, but the Trojans won this championship without dropping a single match (12-0). The national championship wins in 2021 or 2023 could have gone in this spot too, since they also won it against the Bruins, but winning four in a row beats everything.

1. Women's Basketball 2024 series

Hands down, the 2024 Women's basketball series against UCLA was the best rivalry showing in the last five years. It was JuJu Watkins' first season in college. Not only did she revitalize the once-legendary women's basketball program, but this season also enacted a culture shift not only at USC, but in LA as a whole.

Watkins was a star freshman surrounded by mostly transfers that head coach Lindsay Gottlieb got from the portal. On the other side of town were future WNBA draft picks Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice.

USC dropped the first game of the series by seven points. The second game set a then-record for the highest attendance at Galen Center. Watkins and co. put out a phenomenal game, handing the Bruins their first loss of the season, 73-65. The generational talent put up 32 points and really played into the rivalry. After that win, the shift at USC was real. Everyone in LA was talking about her and the women's team.

Watkins' work wasn't done yet, though, because the Trojans met them again in the semi-final of the Pac-12 Basketball tournament. At Pauley Pavilion, the generational guard scored 33 points and was the star of the game that would lead USC to win the tournament and change the culture of the women's basketball program. Since then, USC has recruited two more No. 1 players to the team.

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