Jazzy Davidson, stifling defense lifts still-learning USC to win over Portland
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Kara Dunn held her right wrist aloft for an extra beat. Just to be sure.
It had been a while, by that point in the second quarter, since USC had seen a deep jumper drop. As Dunn lifted off from behind the arc against Portland on Tuesday, 19 of the Trojans’ previous 20 three-point attempts, going back to Saturday’s battle with South Carolina, had missed, a stretch of futility strange to a team that mostly scored at will a season ago.
But before any of those early concerns grew too glaring, Dunn watched as her jumper safely found the bottom of the net. Within a few minutes USC found its offensive mojo again, bouncing back from Saturday’s South Carolina loss to beat Portland 78-51 at Galen Center.
It had a suffocating defensive effort to thank for that. No one was wondering where its mojo was on that end as USC forced a stunning 29 turnovers, its most since last November, when the Trojans tallied a record 42 against Cal State Northridge. Five players had multiple steals.
“When we’re at our best defensively, it leads us to offense,” freshman Jazzy Davidson said.
There was no better example of that than Davidson, who had three steals, all of which turned into breakaway lay-ins. She also had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists in another stat-stuffing performance.
“She was heating up the ball, getting steals in our press, bringing the ball up, getting to the basket,” said sophomore Kennedy Smith, who had 13 points. “That’s what she does best.”
USC will need to be at its best on both ends Friday when it faces No. 24 Notre Dame. But as of Tuesday, there were still plenty of questions about the state of its offense, which faces the tough task of playing without the reigning player of the year, JuJu Watkins.
Kennedy Smith finishes with 12 points, but No. 8 USC can’t keep up with No. 2 South Carolina in the second half of a 69-52 loss, the Trojans’ first loss of the season.
The frontcourt remains a work in progress, with none of USC’s four bigs playing more than 12 minutes Tuesday. Smith has been inconsistent as a No. 2 scorer alongside Davidson, while Londynn Jones has been one of the best scorers off the bench. She had 12.
Coach Lindsay Gottlieb insisted that her team has plenty of capable three-point shooters. But coming into the game, the Trojans were shooting 25% from long range. They ended up shooting 36% on Tuesday but hit eight of their final 18 after missing their first seven.
“We’re all in new spots,” Gottlieb said. “It’s all new people playing together. Once they start to go down more regularly, we’ll start to see more of these 24- and 26-point quarters.”
It looked bleak through the first quarter Tuesday. USC opened the game one for seven from the field, with its offense looking out of sorts, and scored a meager 10 points in the first 10 minutes. Portland, fresh off an NCAA tournament invite last season, opened an early eight-point advantage and led for most of the first half.
Until Dunn’s three-pointer at the 5:42 mark of the second quarter, USC had hit just one shot outside of the paint.
But the mere sight of a long-distance jumper was apparently enough to jump-start things on that end. Davidson snagged a steal on the next possession, the third turnover of the quarter she’d turn into a breakaway lay-in. Smith followed with a steal and a lay-in. Then, Jones pulled up from three-point range and sunk one.
By the end of the barrage, USC had turned an eight-point deficit at the start of the second quarter into a 13-point lead just seven minutes later. It finished the half on a 24-5 run.
Lincoln Riley said he sensed a shift in his team’s demeanor at halftime, just as the team’s Playoff hopes were hanging by a thread.
Davidson was the spark plug. She scored 14 on seven-for-10 shooting in the half. The rest of the team was eight for 24 in that span.
Portland cut USC’s lead to just seven midway through the third quarter. But the Trojans’ defense turned it up from there. Portland made just three shots in the fourth quarter, while USC hit six from three-point range.
“We’re still a work in progress,” Gottlieb said. “But we’ll take it.”
