NCAA Tournament: Jazzy Davidson, USC outlast Clemson in OT

COLUMBIA, S.C. — USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb immediately turned to Trojans video coordinator Rex Greabell when Clemson guard Mia Moore’s potentially buzzer-beating 3-pointer swished through the net.

Did it go in? Greabell, whom Gottlieb says she “trusts with everything,” said no.

And after official review, the referees concurred. There was a slight clock delay on the inbounds play that got Moore the ball, meaning it had left her hands just a hair too late and the game was going into overtime.

“When we heard ‘overtime,’ we said that we don’t get second chances in life,” senior guard Kara Dunn said, “so we need to take advantage of that.”

Ninth-seeded USC (18-13) pounced on the opportunity and pulled off a 71-67 victory over eighth-seeded Clemson (21-12) to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and earn a rematch with top-seeded South Carolina on Monday night (5 p.m. PT) at Colonial Life Arena.

USC lost to the Gamecocks, 69-52, on Nov. 15 at Crypto.com Arena.

Clemson was down by one point in the fourth quarter when Dunn was fouled while making a Euro step layup with 53 seconds left, then hit the ensuing foul shot to switch the advantage to 61-59 in the Trojans’ favor.

Moore’s two free throws tied the score again with 50 seconds on the clock. Dunn got tangled up with defenders, and Clemson got possession of the ball with four seconds on the clock. Moore launched her shot from nearly midcourt, but the would-be game-winner was nullified by official review.

USC outscored Clemson 10-6 in overtime to finish the game, with freshman Jazzy Davidson making back-to-back 3-pointers. The second one, from the right side, put the Trojans ahead 67-64 with 1:05 remaining. Dunn and Kennedy Smith each made both of their free throws down the stretch to ice the win.

“I told her, you don’t ever have to give me a gift ever again because those two shots in overtime were enough,” Dunn said of Davidson. “I’m really, really proud of her. Her maturity, her confidence to step up and take those shots was huge for us.”

Davidson, who was cleared to play after undergoing an MRI on her arm due to an injury suffered during the Big Ten Tournament, scored 31 points in her NCAA Tournament debut, well above her per-game average of 17.6.

She appeared to be wearing a brace or wrap from her shoulder to the middle of her bicep, but otherwise didn’t seem to be physically limited in the game.

“It felt great,” Davidson said of her first tournament experience. “My teammates and coaches put me in a great position with those shots. They called great play calls, and my teammates executed perfectly, and we got the shot.”

Dunn scored 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and Kennedy Smith scored 12 points while pulling down six rebounds.

Taylor Johnson-Matthews scored 16 points for the Tigers and Raven Thompson recorded a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Clemson entered the game with the top scoring defense in the ACC and had been holding opponents to 58.7 points per game. In 19 of their first 32 games this season, the Tigers limited the opposition to 60 points or less and seemed to be on pace to do so again after USC’s uninspiring start to the game.

The Tigers appeared to be the more collected team – perhaps due to playing in their home state – as they mounted a 12-5 lead on back-to-back 3-pointers from Thompson.

USC pulled within 14-13 by the end of the first quarter. Dunn banked a 3-pointer from the left side to open the scoring in the second quarter for the Trojans’ first lead of the game.

Davidson, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, boosted her offensive output to score nine points in the second quarter after being held to two in the first. A 3-pointer and a layup from the freshmen kept USC in the lead, 24-21, midway through the second frame.

“We ask her to make big shots. We ask her to assist passes, play a ton of minutes,” Gottlieb said. “She’s a really, really special basketball player and a really good teammate. I think you see that with the chemistry of the team. She’s come in here and connected us, and I think you saw that on display today. We needed every ounce of it.”

The Clemson defense resettled as the clock ticked down, and 6-foot-5 center Morgan Lee checked into the game with 4:29 left. The defense surged with her in the rotation and held USC scoreless for roughly three minutes.

Lee scored Clemson’s final seven points of the quarter as USC went into halftime down 28-26 after hitting 35.5% from the floor and 21.4% from 3-point range.

Clemson’s backcourt duo of Moore and Rusne Augustinaite had been leading the offense this season with 13.5 and 10.9 points per game, respectively, but neither had scored a single point going into the final quarter.

“They tried to go to their playmakers down the stretch, who could do different things,” Gottlieb said. “And we do have really good perimeter defenders – Kennedy, Jazzy, Malia (Samuels) – where we try to make it tough on people. If you have to go to tough 2s, hopefully they’re tougher than your average tough 2s. I think we did a great job on the defensive end.”

Still, Moore and Augustinaite’s supporting cast had pulled Clemson ahead again, 43-39, by the end of the third quarter.

Smith, who was playing with four fouls, hit a jumper to tie the score at 56-all with 3:10 to play. Davidson tapped in a put-back layup off a missed 3-pointer by Dunn for a 58-56 lead. Moore (nine points, 2-of-12 shooting) neutralized their efforts with a 3-pointer that gave Clemson a 59-58 lead.

“I believe in playing kids with fouls as long as you can because the analytics – why am I sitting them to possibly sit them later,” Gottlieb said. “But four is tough in the third quarter. I rolled with her really early, six, seven minutes or something. She’s a terrific all-around player. She’s also very, very cerebral and very smart, so you can trust her to defend without fouling. We needed her.”

USC is competing in its fourth straight NCAA Tournament and 20th overall in program history. Clemson was appearing in the tournament for the first time in seven years under second-year Tigers head coach Shawn Poppie.

“There is no one outside that locker room that truly thought they could do that,” Poppie said. “Maybe you don’t need to have the most money. Maybe you don’t have to have the most talent. But you still can have the old-school team, and they’re going to compete their butts off for one another, and you can still reach dreams and aspirations. And that’s what they just did.”