{"id":232143,"date":"2026-03-23T05:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T05:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/232143\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T05:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T05:17:20","slug":"usc-views-its-win-over-clemson-as-a-culture-building-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/232143\/","title":{"rendered":"USC views its win over Clemson as a culture-building moment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COLUMBIA, S.C.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0When you look at the USC Trojans<\/a>, one might think they\u2019re setting the table for next year.<\/p>\n

Buying time until JuJu Watkins returns<\/a>. Keeping the ship afloat until the talented recruiting class that includes Saniyah Hall makes its way to campus.<\/p>\n

But the Trojans showed Saturday that\u2019s not the case. They\u2019re making a plate and eating now.<\/p>\n

The No. 9 seed Trojans gutted out a 71-67 overtime win over No. 8 seed Clemson in what USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb<\/a> described as \u201ca culture win.\u201d<\/p>\n

That game featured many tests for a young team in March and the Trojans responded well to the challenges. They are advancing on the back of freshman Jazzy Davidson\u2019s 31 points and senior Kara Dunn\u2019s 22. <\/p>\n

Davidson, who appeared to be on the verge of tears as the referees reviewed the final play of regulation to determine whether she had committed a foul that would have set Clemson up for game-winning free throws, said on Sunday there\u2019s a standard that this year\u2019s Trojans feel they are responsible for meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our expectations, you know nobody wanted to lose JuJu, we all love her, but we have to keep going as you said and just holding that same expectation that they had last season. Just the program standard,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cAnd just resiliency and making sure that we\u2019re doing our best every game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunn said the deck has been stacked against the Trojans all season and it\u2019s forced them to grow stronger as a unit.<\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC guard Kara Dunn drives to the basket in front of Clemson guard Taylor Johnson-Matthews during the first round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday in Columbia, S.C.<\/p>\n

(Nell Redmond \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this year has just been about focusing on going against all odds,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cA lot of people didn\u2019t expect much from this team and they might have turned away at certain times when we had lower moments this season and I think that it built our own culture for this season specifically. I feel like we had to come together, we had to support each other when it didn\u2019t feel like we had much support and I think that that\u2019s been really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that moving through the season with just the support of each other and their die-hard fans works in their favor as they prepare to take on powerhouse South Carolina on the Gamecocks\u2019 formidable home floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have everything to gain, nothing to lose going into this game, so I feel like this has really helped us,\u201d Dunn said.<\/p>\n

The NCAA tournament game against the No. 1 seed on the Trojans\u2019 side of the bracket will be a rematch of the unofficial \u201cBattle of the Real USC\u201d in November. The Gamecocks claimed a 69-52 win<\/a> during that meeting.<\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC guard Jazzy Davidson drives under pressure from Clemson guard Rachael Rose Saturday in Columbia, S.C. <\/p>\n

(Nell Redmond \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Gottlieb said Sunday she scheduled that game to prepare her team for moments like Monday\u2019s tough matchup.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe if we hadn\u2019t played Notre Dame, UConn and South Carolina, maybe our record would be a little better coming in, but it doesn\u2019t make you a better program,\u201d she said. \u201cOur goals remain the same; which is to win a national championship. So if you\u2019re skipping those people in nonconference hoping to manipulate it, it doesn\u2019t work that way. You have to see the best. You have to elevate your program to be the best, then ultimately, you have to beat the best to get to where you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Carolina is trying to avenge last season\u2019s championship loss to UConn and secure its fourth national championship in program history and the third in five years. USC, meanwhile, is trying to match the Cheryl Miller era when she led the Trojans to back-to-back national titles in 1983 and 1984.<\/p>\n

Trojan culture will be tested more than ever, but Dunn feels good about where the team is heading.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously that was the beginning of the season, now it\u2019s towards the end and we\u2019re two very different teams,\u201d she said of the previous loss to South Carolina. \u201cWe\u2019ve grown in a lot of ways, but we\u2019re using that scout just to see what we did well and what we could\u2019ve done better. We just want to make sure that we control those things first and then adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davidson will have the chance to play in another legacy defining game during her second NCAA tournament appearance. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I have nerves a little bit before every game, [Monday] especially because it\u2019s a big game,\u201d she said. \u201cMy teammates are always just making sure I\u2019m calm and in the moment. The confidence that they instill in me every day really helps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBIA, S.C.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0When you look at the USC Trojans, one might think they\u2019re setting the table for next year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[81080,105305,73614,69010,423,48,52,51,3376,47,50,49,5682,18158,105306,105307,10585,427,13670,8843,1543],"class_list":["post-232143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-clemson","tag-culture-building-moment","tag-davidson","tag-dunn","tag-game","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-last-season","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-next-year","tag-no","tag-powerhouse-south-carolina","tag-seed-trojans","tag-standard","tag-team","tag-usc-trojans","tag-way","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}