Last season, the No. 7 Michigan women’s basketball team fell twice to USC. The Trojans won by 20 points in Los Angeles in a game the Wolverines were without sophomore guard Syla Swords. USC also ended Michigan’s Big Ten Tournament run in the semifinals. Safe to say, that left a sour taste in the Wolverines’ mouths.
“It was a big redemption piece,” Swords said in the postgame press conference on Sunday. “(Senior guard Brooke Quarles Daniels) came in ahead of the game and just spoke about our seniors and how it was kind of a gut-wrenching loss that we left with them, but knowing we still could have won that game the whole time. And just heading into this one with a different confidence, but also knowing like we still have something to prove with this matchup.”
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While the Trojans aren’t the same team this season, missing reigning National Player of the Year, guard JuJu Watkins, to a torn ACL, the Wolverines aren’t either.
So when USC surged in the third quarter to seize the lead, Michigan wasn’t fazed. The Wolverines (17-3 overall, 8-1 Big Ten) roared right back with a 13-0 run to begin the fourth quarter, taking the Trojans’ (11-9, 3-6) lead for good, winning 73-67.
“They’re a really good team that we couldn’t stop in the third quarter, but then they couldn’t stop us in the fourth and we held them to nine,” head coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “I thought our team really stuck together in that fourth quarter, and it was led by Brooke’s energy. She was just relentless the entire game. I thought Syla was phenomenal on Jazzy (Davidson) the entire game, and really disruptive to her, so all around team effort and a great win.”
Quarles Daniels’ spark and Swords’ blanket-coverage defense were an imposing tandem that the Wolverines unleashed late in a momentum-shifting fourth quarter, yet their defense characterized the game throughout. Michigan forced 11 first-half turnovers, six of those steals — and three by Swords. The Wolverines sped USC up, resulting in poor shot selection and inefficient looks while they amassed a 40-27 halftime lead through transition points.
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Yet that transition-heavy offense and lockdown defense crumbled in the third quarter. Surrendering 31 points on perfect 4-for-4 three-point shooting and 73 percent from the floor, USC capitalized on open looks and Michigan missteps. While Barnes Arico has preached the importance of defending without fouling all season, the Wolverines committed seven, gifting three momentum-surging and-one free-throw attempts to the Trojans.
Former No. 1 recruit, freshman guard Jazzy Davidson, who averages 16.3 points per game, is the centerpiece of the Trojans’ offense. Her and-one transition layup kickstarted USC into overdrive, launching trio of and-1 buckets and three three-pointers that vaulted the Trojans ahead in a 23-3 game-shifting run, seizing a 52-48 lead midway through the third quarter.
The Wolverines’ only bright spot offensively in the third quarter was sophomore guard Olivia Olson, whose eight points dulled the pain of USC’s punch. Her final points of the quarter came in an and-one of her own, capturing some momentum and carrying it with her into the huddle.
“We needed to regroup, to refocus, to sustain that effort for a longer period of time,” Barnes Arico said. “I gave a shout out in the locker room to coach (Melanie Moore) … she came to that huddle like, ‘This is our game. Settle down,’ and got them going again … ‘Let’s get back to our identity and who we are.’ ”
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With Moore’s words galvanizing them, the Wolverines took the speech to heart. Olson kicked off the quarter with a tough turnaround jumper off a baseline out-of-bounds play. Quarles Daniels generated a four-point swing with a baseline jumper, then picking Davidson’s pocket and running coast-to-coast, reclaiming the lead, 59-58, and sending the crowd to its feet in a deafening roar.
The Trojans’ timeout came too late after Quarles Daniels’ final blow, as the Wolverines only expanded their lead. Outscoring USC 20-9 in the final frame, Michigan snagged three steals, cleanly controlled the ball turnover-free and limited its fouls. Olson added another six points to her team-leading 24, icing the game with a free-throw.
“Olivia Olson is a beast,” Barnes Arico said. “She’s one of the best players in the country, hands-down, in women’s basketball right now. I said this on the show after the game. She’s not spoken about enough because of the balance of our team. … Olivia is so unselfish that she completely buys into that and does what the team needs her to do. The team needed her to score tonight, and when we needed her to score, she got every bucket that we needed.”
With Olson buoying the efforts during the third-quarter lull and Quarles Daniels blasting the energy up late, the Wolverines maintained their unblemished 11-0 home record with an authoritative final quarter.
