LOS ANGELES — The USC women’s basketball team shut down Saint Mary’s in the second quarter and ran away with the game to earn its third straight win on Tuesday night.
The 16th-ranked Trojans overpowered the Gaels, 79-33, at the Galen Center. It was the fewest points any opponent has scored against USC all season.
“Our practice team, our male practice squad, prepared us well,” head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said, “and our players moved the ball great, turned it over minimally. Got to the right shot. People knocked down shots, and then obviously, to hold a team to 33 points is exceptional.”
Londynn Jones came off the bench to score a game-high 17 points. Kara Dunn added 15 points and Jazzy Davidson scored 14 points while dishing out six assists and recording three blocked shots.
USC (6-2) was Saint Mary’s first ranked opponent of the season and the Gaels (5-4) turned the ball over 29 times, leading to 28 USC points.
The Trojans maintained possession of the ball for nearly all of the second quarter and used a 17-0 scoring run to take a 42-18 lead into halftime. Saint Mary’s scored just four points in the period.
Jones hit a 3-pointer to start the second quarter, which was one of two shots she made from long range all night. She showed off her gritty side as the game went on, diving for a loose ball and making a jump shot while drawing a foul.
She made the ensuing free throw to get USC on a 7-0 run and extend their lead to 28-16.
“We can play really long, lengthy,” Gottlieb said. “We can go a little smaller and get up in you. I think our strength in the Big Ten is going to be that there’s a lot of people with a varied skill set. It’s going to be tough to stop a group that’s connected and united, and can do a lot of different things.”
The Trojans’ defense forced turnovers almost as quickly as the offense was scoring. The Gaels turned the ball over 16 times in the first half and gave up the ball eight times in a matter of 6:24 during the second quarter.
Davidson, the Big Ten Freshman of the Week, scored in a variety of ways, even hitting the rim on a turnaround jumper early in the game. She knocked down a midrange jump shot at the buzzer with 6:51 left in the second quarter as the Trojans continued to pull away.
Davidson led her team in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals heading into the game and had a career-high six assists on Tuesday.
“My teammates – they’re shot-makers, so that really helps a lot,” Davidson said. “But I think just being able to play with great players makes it really easy to get those assists.”
The Trojans worked in bench players and played through the second half with ease, holding the Gaels to 15 points.
USC now turns its attention to Big Ten Conference play and has No. 21 Washington on deck for a home game on Sunday. The difficulty will only increase when Connecticut visits the Galen Center the following Saturday (Dec. 13).