Los Angeles, CA- Senior Transfer Guard Londynn Jones was known for her three-point shooting and speed prior to transferring from Big Ten crosstown rivalry UCLA and those two attributes came into career high form Thursday night at the Galen Center with a 28-point performance, leading USC to defeat Cal-Poly, 86-39.
“It was nice to get back on the winning side of things in Galen Center, coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I was proud of our team’s response to obviously a tough one the other night. I thought we had a couple good days of practice and then came out here and did what we needed to do.”
This was Women of Troy’s last home game out of their six game homestand which they achieved a 5-1 record, after rebounding tonight from that disparaging loss against No. 1 UConn this past Saturday.
Jones shot 11 of 16 from the field including 5 of 8 from deep while Freshmen Jazzy Davidson added 17 points and nine rebounds though she appeared to limp off the floor towards the end of the game as the crowd pleaded for her to sit down since the game was out of reach.
“We all know how Londynn can shoot the ball,” coach Gottlieb said. It doesn’t surprise me. It’s more we believe that our shooters, our scorers, everyone’s going to be able to get to higher percentages if the ball’s moving a little more crisply if we get to what we want faster, no matter who it is, and then I thought our defensive intensity created more open looks for us as well.”
Senior Transfer Forward Kara Dunn seemed to rebound as well after struggling against the Huskies with 12 points.
The Mustangs were without two of their top scorers, Vanessa McManus and Charish Thompson as they fell for a second straight time this week, after a 87-point loss to No.4 UCLA.
“We know UCLA is good…I mean we showed a couple clips maybe from that game, but it was really a mixture of what Cal-Poly is trying to do and we felt like this game was a little bit more about us. I don’t think that was too much of a factor,” Coach Gottlieb said.
USC depth appeared to show some promise and potential with role players coming off the bench like YaKiya Milton and Laura Williams, both accomplishing multiple blocks, 4 and 3, respectively. Williams even scored eight points, half of them off put back rebounds.
“I try to capitalize on any opportunity that I’m given,” Milton said. “I try to play with as much energy and intensity as I can, I feel like something that Coach Lindsay has been talking about a lot is rim protecting and I feel like that’s something I’m able to bring and I’m just glad I was able to bring it today.”
Women of Troy out-rebounded Mustangs 44–29 and scored 44 points in the paint plus 39 points off the Cal-Poly’s 27 turnovers.
USC led the entire game and put the game away after halftime with a 26-5 run in third quarter.
“We can play an amazing team any night. So, just having that mentality and just staying true to who we are. you know, it doesn’t really matter who we play as long as we’re going out executing the game plan, the scout, whatever it is that we need to accomplish,” Jones said. “And then just building on that, getting better, communicating with each other. I know, communicating is something we’ve really been focusing on, so I think that that will always help.”
USC heads to the Bay Area for a matchup with coach Gottlieb’s previous school she coached, Cal Bears, in the Bay Area Women’s Classic before they are able to start their holiday break then resume play on December 29th against Nebraska.
