The Trojans were no match in the frontcourt against South Carolina, suffering 101-61<\/a> season-ending loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n South Carolina\u2019s Joyce Edwards and Madina Okot got going early, scoring nine of the Gamecocks\u2019 first 11 points. South Carolina would finish the game with 60 points in the paint. Edwards finished the game with 23 points and 10 rebounds and Okot had 15 points and 15 rebounds.<\/p>\n USC freshman Jazzy Davidson<\/a>, who scored a phenomenal 31 points in her NCAA tournament debut Saturday against Clemson, missed her first two shots. But she recovered and found some offensive rhythm, finishing with 16 points. Kennedy Smith<\/a> picked up the slack in the first half, scoring nine of USC\u2019s first 15 points. Unfortunately, she struggled after that and finished four for 15 from the floor.<\/p>\n Londynn Jones was a spark off the bench for USC, finishing with 20 points to lead the Trojans.<\/p>\n South Carolina, meanwhile, will play No. 4 Oklahoma in the Sweet 16 on Saturday.<\/p>\n Davidson hit a three with 3:54 left in the first half that seemed to give the Trojans some life despite a 14-point deficit. However, things just got worse \u2014 USC (18-14) turned it over six times before halftime. South Carolina (33-3), meanwhile, went on a 16-0 run to take a 51-21 halftime lead.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, you can lose, you can not necessarily be as good as a team, but I thought we were conceding,\u201d USC coach Lindsey Gottlieb said after the game. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to throw the ball away to the team. We had some careless things that I wasn\u2019t pleased with and just wanted to see a different competitive level in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n The second half was not easy on USC, with South Carolina forcing three more turnovers in the first three minutes. The Trojans finished with 27 turnovers, which South Carolina converted into 29 points.<\/p>\n USC guard Jazzy Davidson battles South Carolina guard Raven Johnson for a loose ball during the first half of the Gamecocks\u2019 win Monday in Columbia, S.C.<\/p>\n (Nell Redmond \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re an elite defensive team, there\u2019s no doubt about that. They have been all season. That\u2019s definitely a huge part of their identity,\u201d Davidson said of the Gamecocks. \u201cWe just had to be tougher with the ball throughout the game. The turnovers were another big thing for us just as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n South Carolina also won the rebound battle 43-27, which compounded USC\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we needed just a little bit better ball pressure. We just really didn\u2019t box out well, either,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey had a lot of o-boards, I think Okot had about seven in the first quarter, so just trying to limit that is something I don\u2019t think we did very well. I feel like going into the third and fourth quarter we did a little bit better, but we were in a little too deep.\u201d<\/p>\n A tearful Davidson spoke about the influence Kara Dunn and Jones had on her as a player and a person during a short time. She added that said she\u2019s excited to get back in the gym and return next season as an improved player.<\/p>\n USC guard Kennedy Smith drives under pressure from South Carolina guard Ayla McDowell Monday in Columbia, S.C.<\/p>\n (Nell Redmond \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n \u201cI need to get better. That\u2019s kind of the bottom line,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cI think, obviously, it\u2019s hard to lose in general, but losing this way really sucks, and I think I could have done a lot better for my team today.\u201d<\/p>\n Gottlieb said there\u2019s no doubt in her mind that Davidson will bounce back. She\u2019ll have the benefit of playing alongside star JuJu Watkins, who sat out this season while recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament.<\/p>\n \u201cJazzy has, in particular, taken on every single thing this season and grown from it. That\u2019s going to be part of her greatness,\u201d she said. \u201cI think she and I will look back at this day when we took a butt-kicking her freshman year in an NCAA tournament, and it will be very, very different at some point. And I think that\u2019s because of how she\u2019s handled every single situation.\u201d<\/p>\n ![\"USC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774326916_542_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"USC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774326917_868_.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 9 USC struggles to contain Joyce Edwards and Madina Okot and commits 27 turnovers in a 101-61…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[423,46866,105857,48,52,51,47,50,49,105858,317,105860,15435,18158,1417,7556,105859,18891,23138,3533,105861],"class_list":["post-233659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-game","tag-halftime","tag-joyce-edwards","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-madina-okot","tag-monday-night","tag-more-turnover","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-no","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-season-ending-loss","tag-south-carolina","tag-trojans","tag-usc","tag-usc-freshman-jazzy-davidson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233659","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=233659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}