LOS ANGELES — Another convincing win for the USC Trojans’ Women’s basketball squad as they made quick work of the Cal Poly Mustangs by a lopsided 86-39 final. Londynn Jones had herself a career night against the Mustangs in front of the 3,511 spectators at the Galen Center, dropping 28 points on 11-16 shooting and 4 steals.
Coming into Thursday night, the Trojans were coming off the trail of an ugly loss at home last Saturday to the best team in the country, the UConn Huskies, and with a great week of practice following the loss, according to USC Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb, she was encouraged by how the Women of Troy would respond to Cal Poly.
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“I just wanted to use my time to be as clear with film and messaging as I could to lead us in the right direction,” Gottlieb said on how she utilized the days off after the UConn loss to hone in on the mistakes that were easily noticeable during film sessions, even prefacing to her team and staff that the UConn film session would not be a “pretty” session.
Despite the poor film session, Gottlieb expressed her enthusiasm for the encouraging aspects the film provided, as the team quickly identified their mistakes and was able to work on them easily in preparation for their Thursday matchup.
“While we got it handed to us, we also saw things that we could’ve done better immediately, saw things we could improve at, and what we wanted to see was a team that was more intentional defensively,” Gottlieb said on the upside of their latest film session.
The Women of Troy must have received the memo, as they came out of the gates hot in the first half, and they went on two individual scoring runs that separated them from the Mustangs. An early 12-0 run in the middle of the first quarter and a 7-0 run heading into the locker room for halftime had the Trojans up 45-23.
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Jones was torching it up offensively, leading the team with 18 first-half points on 7-9 shooting, including 3-5 from beyond the arc. Jazzy Davidson led right behind her with 7 points, but was being more frugal on the offensive side and was more active on the defensive end, snagging 6 rebounds in 18 minutes.
The second half was no different and was kicked into second gear as Jones and Davidson had 10 points each, and the entire team locked up any chances for Cal Poly to start any offense. At one point in the game, the Women of Troy had themselves a 50-point lead in the final minutes of the 4th quarter and had a 19-0 run in the second half as well.
“I’m just happy that we’re starting to figure out how to put the pieces together, and it’s been something that we’ve been emphasizing during practice,” Jones said after USC’s win and reflection on her 28-point night.
With this win, the Women of Troy improve to 8-3 on the season and have one more game up north against the California Golden Bears before taking eight days off to play Nebraska on December 29.
