Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
USC forward Kiki Iriafen delivered when it mattered most after JuJu Watkins\u2019 devastating knee injury.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-3 senior, who is projected to be a top-five pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, scored a career-high 36 points on 16-for-22 shooting\u00a0in the Trojans\u2019 96-59 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs Monday in the second round of the 2025 Women\u2019s NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n
Iriafen \u2014 who is in her first season at USC as a graduate transfer from Stanford \u2014 added nine rebounds and two assists in Watkins\u2019 absence after the USC superstar suffered a torn ACL in her right knee just five minutes into game at Galen Center, where the Trojans punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 for a second straight season.<\/p>\n
Watkins, 19, will undergo season-ending surgery and then begin rehabilitation, the team announced. <\/p>\n
Watkins drove to the basket on a fast break and was fouled between two Bulldogs defenders when she fell to the floor grabbing her knee in pain. <\/p>\n
The sophomore forward, who\u2019s averaging 24.6 points, seven rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.8 blocks, was carried off the court and did not return to bench. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to let her down,\u201d Iriafen told ESPN. \u201cWe just want to keep dancing, so whatever it takes is what I wanted to do. I think it just shows our toughness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watkins played a crucial role in USC\u2019s 30-3 mark as they earned one of the No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
Now the spotlight will shift to Iriafen as USC faces Kansas State on Saturday in the Sweet 16 with a potential showdown with UConn looming in the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n
The Trojans suffered an 80-73 loss in the Elite Eight to the Huskies last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Iriafen is averaging 18.6 points on 50.6 percent shooting, 8.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists in her first season with USC. <\/p>\n
She appeared in and started all 36 games for Stanford in the 2023-24 season and averaged 19.4 points and 11.0 rebounds per game \u2014 en route to being named Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
Iriafen was named the 2024 Katrina McClain Award winner as the best power forward in the nation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic USC forward Kiki Iriafen delivered when it mattered most after JuJu Watkins\u2019 devastating knee injury. The 6-foot-3 senior, who is projected to be a top-five pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, scored a career-high 36 points on 16-for-22 shooting\u00a0in the Trojans\u2019 96-59 win over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":252522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-252521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252523,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252521\/revisions\/252523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}