Dunn

The USC Trojans won their second straight game, beating the Pepperdine Waves 82–52 at Galen Center on Friday.

Both teams had a slow scoring momentum in the first quarter with multiple missed shots, but the No. 18 Trojans (5–2) used aggressive defense to secure an 11-point lead.

“Our defensive point of attack was really good,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I think Kennedy [Smith] is really elite as a disrupter and I thought everyone else fed off of her, and so it helped us to kind of change the tempo of the game when it was a little tight there in the first quarter. I thought we did a pretty good job defending the three-point line as a team. … I thought we pushed the ball well and because of that we shot it well.”

Gottlieb said the team focused on executing its game plan.

“We wanted to hold them under 30% from three. We did that,” she said. “We wanted to turn them over a bunch. We did that. And I thought we shared the ball great — 27 assists on 31 baskets is exceptional and I’m happy with a good team effort. We’re still in a place where we want to keep getting better, but you want to be able to build on one step forward and make it two or three in a row.”

Trojans guard Jazzy Davidson opened the second quarter with a three-pointer, followed by a layup from Kara Dunn and another from Vivian Iwuchukwu, plus a foul and free throw, helping USC open a 29-10 lead.

“Having that on the floor — people that can shoot, people that can post up … opens up the floor for all of us,” Dunn said. “So people are out on me and Deezy on the three-point line. That’s how Viv was able to attack and take advantage of that because they can’t really help off, and so I think us having versatile team members and having multiple ways of attack is really good for us.”

Trusting in teammates and knowing they will make the right plays helped Iwuchukwu in her execution on the court.

“Kennedy had seven assists and other people had five and were really good on getting the ball to all of us,” Iwuchukwu said. “Trusting that my teammates were gonna give me the ball, knowing that there’s not going to be someone that’s going to take it from behind me.”

Pepperdine (4–2) tried to cut into USC’s early lead but struggled to overcome 11 first-half turnovers. The Waves gained most of their first-half points from USC fouls.

USC closed the half leading 47–26.

Early in the third quarter, both teams traded baskets, with Iwuchukwu scoring first on a layup for USC, and Pepperdine’s Eli Guiney responding with one of her own. USC led 62–39 heading into the fourth.

Down the stretch, USC continued to extend the lead with a series of three-pointers, and Laura Williams scored the final points of the game.

Davidson finished with 18 points, five assists, four rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Dunn added 19 points and three rebounds. Smith contributed nine points, seven assists, three steals and three rebounds, while Iwuchukwu scored nine points.

Guiney finished with 12 points, six assists and three rebounds. Meghan Fiso scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds.

Heading into their next matchup Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Saint Mary’s (5-3) at Galen Center, the Trojans will continue to focus on communicating as a team and stopping runs early.

“We want to keep people off the offensive glass and it’s just something we know we have to do to win at a high level,” Gottlieb said. “And I just think we wanna continue to grow together as a team, communicate more and go on runs when we’re winning and be able to stop runs when [opponents] have something going.

”… I think everyone wants to do it — like, we’ve got a great group — it’s just really finding how do we take the next step to the next level.”

Kara Dunn held her right wrist aloft for an extra beat. Just to be sure.

It had been a while, by that point in the second quarter, since USC had seen a deep jumper drop. As Dunn lifted off from behind the arc against Portland on Tuesday, 19 of the Trojans’ previous 20 three-point attempts, going back to Saturday’s battle with South Carolina, had missed, a stretch of futility strange to a team that mostly scored at will a season ago.

But before any of those early concerns grew too glaring Tuesday night, Dunn watched as her jumper safely found the bottom of the net. Within a few minutes from there, USC found its offensive mojo again, bouncing back from Saturday’s South Carolina loss to beat Portland, 78-51.

It hasn’t been the smoothest ride for USC this season as it tries to fill the void left by injured superstar JuJu Watkins, who averaged 24 points last season.

Jazzy Davidson has done an admirable job stepping into that leading role early on. She led the way again Tuesday, stuffing the stat sheet with 19 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals.

The question through four games has been who might step up alongside the Trojans’ talented freshman. Londynn Jones scored 12 while Kennedy Smith overcame an inefficient start to score 13 on five-of-14 shooting.

There have been no such concerns this season about USC’s defense, which forced a stunning 29 turnovers. It was the most turnovers forced by the Trojans since last November, when they tallied 42 against California State Northridge.

It looked bleak through the first quarter Tuesday. USC opened the game one for seven from the field, with its offense looking out of sorts, and scored a meager 10 points in the first 10 minutes. Portland, fresh off an NCAA tournament invite last season, opened an early eight-point advantage and led for most of the first half.

Until Dunn’s three-pointer at the 5:42 mark of the second quarter, USC had hit just one shot outside of the paint.

But the mere sight of a long-distance jumper was apparently enough to jump-start things on that end. Davidson snagged a steal on the next possession, the third turnover of the quarter she’d turn into a breakaway lay-in. Kennedy Smith followed with a steal and a lay-in. Then, Jones pulled up from three-point range and sunk one.

By the end of the barrage, USC had turned an eight-point deficit at the start of the second quarter into a 13-point lead, just seven minutes later. It finished the half on a 24-5 run.

Davidson was the spark plug. She scored 14 on seven-of 10 shooting in the first half. The rest of the team was eight of 24 in that span.

Portland cut USC’s lead to just seven points midway through the third quarter. But the Trojans kicked into high gear again. A few minutes into the fourth, Smith hit a three-pointer. Then Jones followed with two more.

By that point, USC had buried Portland for good.

Faith Dunn, clad in a green tracksuit, entered the cavernous room full of bunk beds with hundreds of contestants in the highly competitive second season of “Squid Game: The Challenge.” The home health nurse — a huge fan of the popular Korean dystopian series — was Player 361.

Dunn, 29, flew to England for the first time in January to take part in the reality competition series filmed at Shinfield Studios near Reading.

“‘Squid Game’ is the best series I’ve ever watched,” said Dunn, who lives in Springfield, Ore. “They’re really going the extra mile, letting us try this in person. I was extremely excited to go.”

Dunn, along with 455 other contestants, competed to win $4.56 million in prize money in games inspired by “Squid Game.”

The nine-episode second season, which premiered this week, is just the latest example of Netflix’s foray into the world of reality competition shows that cater to the rabid fan base of its most popular programs.

The streaming giant has announced several new reality competitions this year including “The Golden Ticket,” inspired by the world of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and a reality contest based on the mystery game “Clue.” There are also plans to adapt the cutthroat real estate board game “Monopoly” into a reality series.

Another game show in the works has the working title “Win the Mall.” Billed as the next generation of “Supermarket Sweep” and “The Price Is Right,” the new show will test the knowledge of consumers, Netflix told The Times.

“We look for unique worlds,” said Jeff Gaspin, Netflix’s vice president of unscripted series. “How can we do something that we haven’t seen many times before?”

In all, Netflix has commissioned 34 reality competition seasons this year, according to Ampere Analysis, a market research firm. That represents 9% of TV show seasons ordered — the highest percentage that Ampere has seen since it started tracking Netflix shows commissioned globally in 2020, the firm said.

“They’re expanding the universe of big-budget, high-profile, high-concept reality series because their research tells them that’s what the audience wants,” said Tom Nunan, a former studio and network executive.

It helps to have a hit. “Squid Game: The Challenge” was inspired by Netflix’s most popular show, “Squid Game,” which garnered 265.2 million views globally in its first season in its first 91 days on Netflix in 2021, according to the streamer’s data. That fandom carried over to the reality competition spinoff that launched in 2023. More than 95% of Netflix customers who watched “Squid Game: The Challenge” also watched “Squid Game,” according to Netflix.

“It was so huge globally … finding a show that resonates in just about every territory is rare,” Gaspin said. “So translating it to a reality format seemed like a no-brainer.”

Unlike big-budget fantasy or sci-fi series, reality competition shows usually have lower budgets and many of them are filmed abroad, primarily in the UK and Canada, to take advantage of lucrative financial incentives.

Gaspin declined to disclose the budget for “Squid Game: The Challenge,” but he said the first season’s budget was substantially above $10 million.

“It is by far one of our biggest competition reality shows, and the budget supports that,” said Gaspin, a former executive at NBC Universal Television Entertainment.

The series was filmed on six soundstages in its second season. A large rotating platform was built to depict “mingle,” a game where players must gather a certain number of people in a room under a deadline in order to survive to the next round. Ninety cameras were used to track their movements.

Players also went head to head in teams of five, with their legs tied together, as they raced on a track to complete various challenges, including building a house of cards fast enough to avoid elimination.

Netflix has been taking steps to diversify its business into new areas, such as video games and even mall locations where it can create immersive experiences with fans. Next week the Los Gatos, Calif., company will launch Netflix House in the Philadelphia area where people can go to buy Netflix-themed merchandise or pay for experiences based on Netflix programs.

Unlike other TV networks, which have faced steep budget cuts, Netflix has deep pockets to try new types of programming.

“The fear factor is lower at Netflix than it is anywhere else,” Nunan said. “In other words, they seem much more confident in themselves and then taking a swing with things.”

That’s why Jimmy Fox, head of unscripted development and sales at Fremantle’s U.S. operations, took “Win the Mall” to Netflix.

“Most networks you pitch a highly ambitious show to, they will immediately try to bring you down to earth and strip your idea down to the most basic premise,” Fox said. “At Netflix, you pitch them an ambitious idea, they will stare you in the eye and ask how, together, can we make this even bigger?”

Netflix expanded its push into reality TV in 2018 with the launch of cooking competition shows like “Nailed It!” and “Sugar Rush.”

Since then, the company has developed popular franchises including reality dating shows such as “Love Is Blind,” and created fandoms over reality contestants like Harry Jowsey from “Too Hot to Handle,” who will launch his own show similar to ABC’s “The Bachelor” next year.

Dunn, the “Squid Game: The Challenge” contestant, got the opportunity to apply for the second season of the reality show after she had won a “Squid Game” experience event in Los Angeles.

To prepare for the show, she re-watched “Squid Game: The Challenge” Season 1 and documentaries related to body language and communication.

“I couldn’t believe I had this opportunity of a lifetime and I became obsessed with ‘Squid Game,’” Dunn said. “I got a puppy afterwards, and his name is Squid.”

WASHINGTON — Hurling a sandwich at a federal agent was an act of protest for Washington, D.C., resident Sean Charles Dunn. A jury must decide if it was also a federal crime.

“No matter who you are, you can’t just go around throwing stuff at people because you’re mad,” Assistant U.S. Atty. John Parron told jurors Tuesday at the start of Dunn’s trial on a misdemeanor assault charge.

Dunn doesn’t dispute that he threw his submarine-style sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent outside a nightclub on the night of Aug. 10. It was an “exclamation point” for Dunn as he expressed his opposition to President Trump’s law enforcement surge in the nation’s capital, defense attorney Julia Gatto said during the trial’s opening statements.

“It was a harmless gesture at the end of him exercising his right to speak out,” Gatto said. “He is overwhelmingly not guilty.”

A bystander’s cellphone video of the confrontation went viral on social media, turning Dunn into a symbol of resistance against Trump’s months-long federal takeover. Murals depicting him mid-throw popped up in the city virtually overnight.

“He did it. He threw the sandwich,” Gatto told jurors. “And now the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia has turned that moment — a thrown sandwich — into a criminal case, a federal criminal case charging a federal offense.”

A grand jury refused to indict Dunn on a felony assault count, part of a pattern of pushback against the Justice Department’s prosecution of surge-related criminal cases. After the rare rebuke from the grand jury, U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office charged Dunn instead with a misdemeanor.

Customs and Border Protection Agent Gregory Lairmore, the government’s first witness, said the sandwich “exploded” when it struck his chest hard enough that he could feel it through his ballistic vest.

“You could smell the onions and the mustard,” he recalled.

Lairmore and other agents were standing in front of a club hosting a “Latin Night” when Dunn approached and shouted profanities at them, calling them “fascists” and “racists” and chanting “shame.”

“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.

Lairmore testified that he and the other agents tried to de-escalate the situation.

“He was red-faced. Enraged. Calling me and my colleagues all kinds of names,” he said. “I didn’t respond. That’s his constitutional right to express his opinion.”

After throwing the sandwich, Dunn ran away but was apprehended about a block away.

Later, Lairmore’s colleagues jokingly gave him gifts making light of the incident, including a subway sandwich-shaped plush toy and a patch that said “felony footlong.” Defense attorney Sabrina Schroff pointed to those as proof that the agents recognize this case is “overblown” and “worthy of a joke.”

Parron told jurors that everybody is entitled to their views about Trump’s federal surge. But “respectfully, that’s not what this case is about,” the prosecutor said. “You just can’t do what the defendant did here. He crossed a line.”

Dunn was a Justice Department employee who worked as an international affairs specialist in its criminal division. After Dunn’s arrest, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi announced his firing in a social media post that referred to him as “an example of the Deep State.”

Dunn was released from custody but rearrested when a team of armed federal agents in riot gear raided his home. The White House posted a highly produced “propaganda” video of the raid on its official X account, Dunn’s lawyers said.

Dunn’s lawyers have argued that the posts by Bondi and the White House show Dunn was impermissibly targeted for his political speech. They urged U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to dismiss the case, calling it a vindictive and selective prosecution. Nichols, who was nominated by Trump, didn’t rule on that request before the trial started Monday.

Dunn is charged with assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer. Dozens of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol were convicted of felonies for assaulting or interfering with police during the Jan. 6 attack. Trump pardoned or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of them.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Throwing a sandwich at a federal agent turned Sean Charles Dunn into a symbol of resistance against President Trump’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital. This week, federal prosecutors are trying to persuade a jury of fellow Washington, D.C., residents that Dunn simply broke the law.

That could be a tough sell for the government in a city that has chafed against Trump’s federal takeover, which is entering its third month. A grand jury refused to indict Dunn on a felony assault count before U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office opted to charge him instead with a misdemeanor.

Securing a trial conviction could prove to be equally challenging for Justice Department prosecutors in Washington, where murals glorifying Dunn’s sandwich toss popped up virtually overnight.

Before jury selection started Monday, the judge presiding over Dunn’s trial seemed to acknowledge how unusual it is for a case like this to be heard in federal court. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, said he expects the trial to last no more than two days “because it’s the simplest case in the world.”

A video that went viral on social media captured Dunn hurling his subway-style sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent outside a nightclub on the night of Aug. 10. That same weekend, Trump announced his deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops and federal agents to assist with police patrols in Washington.

When Dunn approached a group of CBP agents who were in front of the club, which was hosting a “Latin Night,” he called them “fascists” and “racists” and chanted “shame” toward them. An observer’s video captured Dunn throwing a sandwich at an agent’s chest.

“Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” Dunn shouted, according to police.

Dunn ran away but was apprehended. He was released from custody but rearrested when a team of armed federal agents in riot gear raided his home. The White House posted a highly produced “propaganda” video of the raid on its official X account, Dunn’s lawyers said. They noted that Dunn had offered to surrender to police before the raid.

Dunn worked as an international affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s criminal division. After Dunn’s arrest, U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi announced his firing in a social media post that referred to him as “an example of the Deep State.”

Before trial, Dunn’s lawyers urged the judge to dismiss the case for what they allege is a vindictive and selective prosecution. They argued that the posts by Bondi and the White House prove Dunn was impermissibly targeted for his political speech.

Julia Gatto, one of Dunn’s lawyers, questioned why Trump’s Justice Department is prosecuting Dunn after the Republican president issued pardons and ordered the dismissal of assault cases stemming from a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“It’s an obvious answer,” Gatto said during a hearing last Thursday. “The answer is they have different politics. And that’s selective prosecution.”

Prosecutors countered that Dunn’s political expressions don’t make him immune from prosecution for assaulting the agent.

“The defendant is being prosecuted for the obvious reason that he was recorded throwing a sandwich at a federal officer at point-blank range,” they wrote.

Dunn is charged with assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer. Dozens of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol were convicted of felonies for assaulting or interfering with police during the Jan. 6 attack. Trump pardoned or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of them.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.