LOS ANGELES — JuJu Watkins and the rest of the Southern California women’s basketball team had a couple of special visitors in the locker room Sunday night.
Cherie Nelson, who held the program’s scoring record for many years with a 50-point game, was among several Trojans alumni at Galen Center. She brought her 98-year-old mother, whose house in nearby Altadena was destroyed in the wildfires last week.
“She told us she’d been reading about how well we’ve been doing and wanted to come and meet JuJu and meet the team, and then her mom lost her home,” Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “Dealing with that, it was probably up in the air if they were going to come, and her mom said, ‘No, I want to go see the USC women’s team play.'”
They were part of a high-energy crowd of 5,881 that included actor Vivica A. Fox and several children at one of the first sporting events held in Los Angeles since the wildfires began on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers are set to resume their schedules on Monday night after having games postponed Saturday.
“I took it as a good opportunity to have some fun,” Watkins said. “Vibes are kind of down here in L.A., so our goal was to put on a show and entertain people for a couple hours.”
Watkins scored 35…
