USC has found a new sensation with superstar JuJu Watkins sidelined.
Her name is Jazzy Davidson, and she has shown that she’s capable of taking over games and making the Trojans one of the hottest women’s basketball teams in the Big Ten.
A 79-73 victory over Indiana on Thursday night at the Galen Center represented the Trojans’ season-high fifth consecutive triumph. It also further solidified Davidson’s standing as one of the nation’s top freshmen.
Four days after tallying a career-high 27 points, Davidson continued her strong play with 24 points, six rebounds, three steals, three assists and two blocks while playing all 40 minutes.
It’s her third consecutive game with at least 20 points.
“She makes kind of ridiculous stats look fairly ordinary for her, and they’re not ordinary,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said after her team improved to 16-9 overall and 8-6 in the Big Ten. “You talk about over-delivering, right? To be a freshman and carry the load that she carries for us and continue to grow, 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.”
Scoring with a flurry of layups and jumpers while also making eight of 10 free throws, Davidson’s emergence alongside the continued strong play of Kara Dunn (16 points) and Kennedy Smith (15) portends some intriguing possibilities for the rest of the season.
“I think it’s really just the comfortability for me,” Davidson said, “the support of my teammates and coaches just puts all the confidence in me and I’m just really grateful for that.”
What does it mean?
USC has probably moved off the NCAA tournament bubble. The Trojans are now in a three-way tie for seventh place in the Big Ten standings alongside Washington and Maryland, only two games behind fifth-place Minnesota.
“We’re as good and set up as any team outside maybe the top group to get a great seed and all those things,” Gottlieb said, “and we just want to keep getting better and commit to the process that’s now gotten us on a winning streak.”
Turning point
With the Trojans struggling to put away Indiana even with the Hoosiers missing leading scorer Shay Ciezki (ankle), junior guard Malia Samuels made several big defensive plays in the final minutes.
She came up with a steal her team couldn’t convert into points before reaching in to force a jump ball and another Hoosiers turnover that ended in a USC shot-clock violation.
But Samuels was finally rewarded when she swatted a shot by Indiana’s Lenee Beaumont, leading to Samuels feeding teammate Laura Williams for a layup that gave the Trojans a 79-71 lead.
That was essentially the ballgame.
MVP
Having recently been named national freshman of the week while also piling up five Big Ten freshman of the week awards, Davidson is starting to fill out a trophy case.
“We know how good she is, we see it every day,” Gottlieb said. “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, she’s a really special player in her ability to impact the game in all ways.”
Up next
The Trojans get a week off before another home game against Wisconsin. Then it’s back on the road to face No. 8 Ohio State on Feb. 22 and Penn State on Feb. 25.
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