LOS ANGELES — The No. 19 USC women’s basketball team bounced back from its loss to No. 1 UConn in a big way by dominating Cal Poly, 86-39, on Thursday night.
Londynn Jones came off the bench to score a career-high 28 points for USC (8-3 overall, 2-0 Big Ten). She shot 11 for 16 from the field and 5 for 8 from 3-point range and tacked on four steals.
“I get shots up with Coach Nikki (Blue) after every practice,” Jones said after the game. “I have my trainer come up sometimes, maybe two times a week. Coach Lindsay (Gottlieb) is really big on game-like reps every single time, and I think that helps so much because it translates.”
Jazzy Davidson scored 17 points, pulled down nine rebounds and had six steals. Malia Samuels had a career-high seven assists and 10 different players scored in the game.
USC recorded 15 steals as a team, which was just shy of the Trojans’ season high of 16.
“While we got it handed to us (against UConn), we also saw things that we could have done better immediately,” Gottlieb said. “We saw things that we could improve at, and so what we wanted to see was just a team that was more intentional defensively. More ball pressure. More participation from all five people at once, and offensively, just doing simple things better.”
Madison Butcher chipped in 11 points as the biggest contributor for Cal Poly (2-9 overall, 0-3 Big West), which played without leading scorer Vanessa McManus.
USC’s Gerda Raulušaitytė started in her second straight game at forward and provided a strong presence in the paint defensively to complement the Trojans’ half-court press.
The 6-foot-3 Lithuanian-born player finished with four points and three rebounds while disrupting the Mustangs under the net.
USC’s first-half scoring was seldom interrupted by the Mustangs. The Trojans went on a 9-0 scoring run within the first six minutes of the game and later scored 12 unanswered points while forcing four turnovers to close out the first half.
Jones got under the Mustangs’ skin defensively, sneaking in for steals and usually scoring afterward. She hit a 3-pointer with 47 seconds remaining in the first half, then grabbed a steal and went in for a cross-court layup to extend the margin to 45-23.
“One thing I really appreciate about Londynn is that she didn’t look too much different today going 5 for 8 from three as if she didn’t shoot as well,” Gottlieb said, “because she’s going to bring that confidence and swagger, no matter what.”
USC began emptying its bench in the third quarter, giving players like 6-2 redshirt freshman Laura Williams the opportunity to grab rebounds and 6-5 junior forward Yakiya Milton the chance to make a physically imposing block with 1:42 left in the frame.
Milton, an Auburn transfer, collected six points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots in less than 10 minutes.
“I try to capitalize on any opportunity that I’m given,” Milton said. “Try to play with as much energy and intensity as we can. I feel like something that Coach Lindsay has been talking about a lot is rim protecting. I feel like that’s something that I’m able to bring. I’m just glad I was able to bring it today.”
The Trojans held the Mustangs to just five points in the third quarter and 11 in the fourth. No player surpassed 30 minutes of playing time and the bench contributed 45 points for the night, demonstrating USC’s potential when it comes to depth.
“We have competitive depth, and I think that it should allow us to play really hard,” Gottlieb said. “We do believe we can play different kinds of lineups. Different people who have different skill sets, different looks and come at people in waves. You need that in the Big Ten.”
USC next heads to San Francisco to square off with Cal in the Bay Area Women’s Classic, which also features a matchup between Stanford and Oregon.
Gottlieb coached the Golden Bears from 2012-2019 and went 179-89 at the school. Her 279 wins rank second-most in Cal history.
The Trojans resume Big Ten play at Nebraska on Dec. 29.