Lindsay Gottlieb was looking for some fight.
At the end of a season that stretched and challenged her in ways the USC coach never had been stretched and challenged before, the Trojans were trailing No. 2 UCLA at halftime by nearly twice their score.
Little had gone right for USC, just like little had gone right the first time these teams met. The Bruins already were well on their way to a 73-50 victory, comfortably securing their 18-0 conference record in the process. But amid the coronation for their crosstown rival, Gottlieb was looking for anything that told her this Trojans team could take some punches and also give some back in March.
“We just wanted to … make it about what we’re capable of,” Gottlieb said.
And for a brief stretch at the start of the second half, she caught a glimpse of just that. Kara Dunn knocked down a three-pointer. Jazzy Davidson hit a fast-break lay-in and drew a foul. Then Dunn hit another three-pointer. In a matter of 31 seconds, USC had cut a seemingly insurmountable lead to single digits.
It didn’t last. UCLA’s firepower proved far too much for USC — despite the fact that Bruins star center Lauren Betts scored just five points, tied for her fewest in two years.
Still, Gottlieb called that spurt “special,” if only for the fact that it showed USC still has some life as it opens the postseason Wednesday against Washington in the Big Ten tournament.
In a way, that has been the story of the season for USC. Doomed to play without their superstar, JuJu Watkins, the Trojans still managed to scratch and claw their way to a 17-12 record and a certain spot in the NCAA tournament.
USC guard Jazzy Davidson (9) reacts to a call while standing next to guard Kennedy Smith during a 73-50 loss to UCLA at Galen Center on Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
They won their fewest games since Gottlieb’s first season. But along the way, she said, she saw plenty of fight from her team.
Enough, at least, to be satisfied with what came of a sometimes frustrating season.
“We feel really good generally about where our program is,” Gottlieb said. “What we’re trying to build here and what we’ve built goes beyond one good season or two good seasons. I think it’s going to be what this era is about for a very long time. We have not won as many games as I want to win, and we had some really good wins and we had some tough stretches. But I think we’re primed to do what this team can do in March.”
How high that ceiling is remains to be seen. The Trojans lost three in a row to close their schedule but won six in a row before that.
At times they’ve shown a propensity for high-powered offense. In the previous two games, USC hit 15 combined three-pointers. But on Sunday afternoon, the Trojans hit just three of 19.
The same inconsistency generally has been the case on defense. USC is 15-3 when it holds opponents under 40% shooting and 2-9 when opponents shoot better than that.
USC star JuJu Watkins, left, and USC guard Jazzy Davidson interact on the sideline during the second half Sunday against UCLA at Galen Center.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Any best-case scenario for USC this month presumably would involve a true star turn for Davidson, who already has proven to be a bona fide playmaker as a freshman. Davidson hadn’t scored fewer than 16 points in a game in five weeks until Sunday, when UCLA held her to 12 on four-for-13 shooting.
“She’s had an incredible freshman year,” Gottlieb said, “and I think we’re still only tapping into what she’s capable of.”
And maybe, just maybe, with March Madness fast approaching, the same could be said of these Trojans.
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