Los Angeles, CA- Senior Transfer Forward Kara Dunn racked up 19 points and Freshman Guard Jazzy Davidson chipped in 18 to lead No. 18 USC in a dominant fashion against Pepperdine, 82-52 on an early Friday evening at the Galen Center.
“I thought that was a really good challenge for us. Shout out to Coach Katie [Faulkner] who has turned Pepperdine around here pretty quickly,” USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “[Coach Courtney] Jaco did a great scout…”
While the coaches did their best on scouting, their team executed the plans efficiently led by Dunn whom finished the game 8-of-10 from the field, 3-of-4 from three-point line plus two steals.
“We tried to really execute. We wanted to hold them under 30% from three and we did that,” coach Gottlieb said. “We wanted to turn them over a bunch and we also did that. I thought we shared the ball well, 27 assists on 31 baskets is exceptional. [I’m] happy with a good team effort…”
Sophomore Forward Kennedy Smith held down the team’s facilitator role on offense, dishing out a career-high seven assists while starting point guard Malia Samuels sat out today due to what coach Gottlieb described briefly as a “lingering” injury.
Smith added to her stat line with nine points, three rebounds and three steals. Senior Transfer Guard Londynn Jones and Davidson was apart of ‘the sharing is caring committee,’ both handing out five assists apiece.
“I think Kennedy [Smith] is really elite as a disrupter, and I thought everyone else fed off of her,” coach Gottlieb said. “It helped us to kind of change the tempo of the game when it was a little tight there early in the first quarter.”
USC’s offense progressed tremendously over their past couple of games while continuing to build around their defensive rotations whether denying shots or passing lanes. Speaking of being denied, Davidson got three of the eight today, including a “pump your brakes” one behind the arc on Meghan Fiso to close the first half, 47-26.
“I thought our defensive [and] point of attack was really good,” coach Gottlieb said. “Our bigs [were] guarding bigs that shoot the three and [were] dominating their matchup…”
While Dunn found herself in a bit of foul trouble with their concerted aggressiveness on defense, it did not slow down her momentum of attacking the Waves’ both in the paint and behind the arc.
“It goes back to having so many people be threats and be able to score,” Dunn said. “I think that having people that can shoot, people that can post up, it opens the floor up for all of us. I think having versatile team members and having multiple ways of attack is really good for us.”
The Trojans (5-2) led the entire game and never took their foot off the gas, riding the Waves(4-2) to the final buzzer.
Elli Guiney led Pepperdine with 12 points and Fiso contributed 11. The Waves have never won against the Women of Troy as today marked their 20th career loss.
Pepperdine outrebounded USC by three boards but hit only one 3-pointer out of 13.
USC forced 18 turnovers and maximized on it by tallying 24 points. Women of Troy cashed in on 27 assists and robbed the Waves with 10 steals. Great showing of teamwork and maturity to sustain such effort, especially in front of hosting USC verbal commit, Saniyah Hall whom you could spot chatting it up with Women of Troy legend Cheryl Miller during halftime.
“It’s really good to have [ Londynn Jones and Kara Dunn]in the gym,” Sophomore Forward Vivian Iwuchukwu said about their team’s senior veterans. “And outside of the experience, people like Kennedy… have a lot of experience from last year. They’re really good outlets to go to… They are so composed in the heat of the moment and it’s really easy to go to them and ask them questions like that.”
USC returns to hosting duties next Tuesday when they face another out of conference, in state university, Saint Mary’s.
