Los Angeles, CA – USC appeared to figure out by now their early season woes of slow starts and low first quarter scoring, until Indiana showed up at the Galen Center, Thursday night, bringing out remnants of old memories that gradually faded when Freshman standout Jazzy Davidson tuned up her game, finishing with 24 points to lead her team into their fifth straight victory, while kicking down Indiana whom played without their top player and conference leading scorer, 79-73.
“I want to credit Indiana,” USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “…to come out and play the way they did, Coach Terry’s a great coach. Their kids played their tails off. they obviously, you know, had us on our heels initially, but I’m proud of the way we competed. I’m proud of our fight and …just the growth we see in the team and our confidence to get it done, even if it’s not always the prettiest, is something that we’re proud of and we’ll take, you know, the bye week and get better!”
USC closed the first quarter 24-13, down by 11 after Freshman Jazzy Davidson warmed up eventually from a drive to the basket off a lead pass by Senior Transfer Londynn Jones, whom started the game after coming off the bench early in the season.
“Just look at she makes kind of ridiculous stats look fairly ordinary for her and they’re not ordinary, right? Like the numbers are really showing it, but we’ve seen for a long time that she’s just capable of doing almost anything on a basketball court…and she plays both sides of the ball.” Coach Gottlieb said.
USC countered Indiana’s opening quarter run with their second quarter run, outscoring 22 – 13 and closing the lead into two before halftime, 37- 35 behind Davidson’s 14 first half points.
“I think it’s really just been comfortability for me,” Davidson said about her improved performance. “The support of my teammates and coaches just puts all the confidence in me and I’m just really grateful for that.”
Redshirt freshman Laura Williams got the team fired up and jumping off the bench after a momentum shift three-point play with 33 seconds remaining in the period that gave Women of Troy their first lead of the night at 35-34 sealing a 13-2 run.
“Like Laura’s getting more and more comfortable with what she’s really good at, what she’s supposed to do, right?” Coach Gottlieb said. “She’s a red shirt freshman…these are her first college games of extended minutes, so her growth has been really tremendous. Again, as I think the rest of the team has kind of come together and everyone’s feeling a little more comfortable. It then allows our fives to come in and really do their job.”
USC continued that momentum swing into the third quarter behind Senior Transfer Kara Dunn’s opening quarter three-pointer a play she has done frequent coming out of halftime to retake the lead and onward to take over the game.
Women of Troy scored 22 points again for the third quarter outscoring the Hoosiers by five for a 57-54 advantage.
Women of Troy caused more problems for Lady Hoosiers which had no answers for Davidson, Dunn and Kennedy Smith whom dropped back-to-back buckets in their new silver lining LeBron Next Gen shoes designed by their teammate JuJu Watkins, whose sat out this season after a torn ACL.
“Through the losses, we were able to figure out things within our team, build connections with each other on the floor and off the floor. And I think that’s been like the silver lining through this whole season,” Dunn said about finding silver lining as a team.
“I would add just on the silver lining thing for me,” coach Gottlieb said. “no one would have ever chosen for that kid to get hurt, right? Like but the growth in her speaking about JuJu has been phenomenal. And I do think there will be a time where she looks back and says, “Well, you know, no one wants an injury, but look at how much I’ve grown.” And for our team, right? The way that it’s put us in positions to grow and be about the right things this year…I’m really proud of the fact that as we’re figuring it out, we’re all getting better and growing and it’s cool to be a part of that even though you always choose wins, but if not, like this has been really neat to see it, you know, come together. And we’re not there yet, but that’s a silver lining for sure.”
Indiana found some silver lining as they never gave up and fought to the final buzzer, being led by Freshmen Maya Makalusky’s 29 points despite as a team committing 25 fouls for a league record and 19 turnovers.
Women of Troy shot 28-for-35 from the free throw line, a new season high and matched a season best with 44 second-half points. USC stole back this game, defending their home court like stealing candy from a baby including four steals from Junior Malia Samuels, a career high.
“We hold Malia to a really high standard. Like, we know what she’s capable of. We know who she is as a person. We know who she is as a player… We don’t let her slip and I thought she was on point tonight with distributing the ball, three assists, no turnovers. Like, obviously, she changes the game defensively,” coach Gottlieb said. “She got to the free throw line. I thought all around she just came in and did what we know she’s entirely capable of doing and did at a really high level.”
Davidson got much help from Samuels and her other vets—Dunn added 16 points and Smith 15 points while Williams led with nine boards.
Davidson filled out her stat line after reaching her fourth-straight 20-point performance to go along with six rebounds, three assists, three steals, two blocks and a career-high eight free throws made.
“She’s [ Davidson] unique. I know there’s like several good freshman in the country. We know how good she is. We see it every day. We think there’s no one better and to see now how it’s impacting winning and impacting her teammates and allowing everyone to be at their best,” Coach Gottlieb said. “It’s just she’s a really special player and her ability to impact the game in all ways.”
USC hosts Wisconsin next Thursday at the Galen Center on Thursday, February. 19 at 6 p.m. PT.
