Kara Dunn and Jazzy Davidson lead USC to blowout win over Rutgers
The USC women’s basketball team earned a 71-39 victory over Rutgers on Sunday at the Galen Center.
The Trojans (13-9, 5-6 Big Ten) got off to a slow start, ending the first quarter trailing by three points. Rutgers (9-13, 1-10) held the lead until the 5:39 mark in the second quarter when Kara Dunn made two free throws.
USC stepped up its defensive pressure in the second quarter, which helped ignite its offense.
“We really put our energy out there. I think we were really trying to find our way,” Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I thought at halftime we needed to calm down and say we could have that energy and still make the right plays on offense, which I thought we did in the second half. I thought our effort, our energy and our will was there. We were just too sloppy in the first half, and then we calmed down, shot the ball better and had more control.”
The Trojans held a six-point lead at halftime and extended it on a second-half surge.
Dunn led USC with 18 points and six rebounds. Jazzy Davidson contributed 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists, while Kennedy Smith added 11 points and four assists. Laura Williams anchored the glass with 11 rebounds and Malia Samuels finished with seven points and four rebounds.
“Laura is a tremendous athlete. She’s just a tremendous athlete, and she’s got really long arms and she goes up and gets the ball, so she’s a really good offensive rebounder,” Gottlieb said. “I think tonight in particular we didn’t shoot well, so there were a lot of opportunities. They were in a zone, so no one really locks you down, and I thought she did exactly what she was capable of doing in that sense. Laura, I thought, set a really good tone there – she rebounded both offensively and defensively.”
Imani Lester scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds for Rutgers. Zachara Perkins recorded 12 points and four rebounds and Faith Blackstone added six points.
USC outscored Rutgers 23-8 in the third quarter and kept the pressure on in the fourth, outscoring the Scarlet Knights 19-8. The Trojans dominated the battle on the boards, 57-32. USC made the most of Rutgers’ 20 turnovers, scoring 21 points on miscues.
“We’re a better team when we don’t take it to the other team,” Gottlieb said. “We are so good defensively that we really don’t want to give in [our opponents] all easy possessions and transitions after turnovers, and I think we’re really capable offensively. So you just have to continue to value the ball and be precise. We just want to be able to distinguish any type of defense, whether it’s a press, whether it’s a man, whether it’s a drop man, whether it’s a zone. We need to continue to build our offensive confidence and our arsenal to be able to win any way we can.
USC will look to extend its two-game winning streak at Northwestern (8-14, 2-9) on Thursday at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
