SAN FRANCISCO — Freshman Jazzy Davidson scored a go-ahead layup with 4:05 remaining and finished with a season-best 24 points, leading the No. 19 USC women past California 61-57 on Sunday in the Invisalign Bay Area Women’s Classic.
After Davidson’s basket, Londynn Jones hit a jumper the next time down as USC used a 6-0 burst to take control. The Trojans answered each Cal threat with a key defensive play or big basket.
Cal called time out with 43.8 seconds left and trailing 56-54, but as the Golden Bears tried to set up a play, USC’s Kennedy Smith made a steal of Sakima Walker’s bad pass.
Davidson, one of four Trojans averaging double digits in scoring, shot nine for 21 with three three-pointers. She scored 14 points by halftime as USC led 31-28 and held Cal to five three-point attempts while forcing 11 turnovers.
The Trojans scored 15 points off 18 turnovers by Cal (8-5).
Walker led the Golden Bears with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Lulu Twidale and Taylor Barnes each scored 11.
The longtime Pac-12 rivals reunited at Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors — and fans hurried down the stairs for a glimpse of injured USC star JuJu Watkins walking in with the Trojans (9-3).
The game featured fifth-year USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb against her former Cal program that she led to its first Final Four after the 2012-13 season. Gottlieb coached the Golden Bears from 2011-19.
Cal’s Gisella Maul went down hard in the closing moments of the third quarter and walked to the locker room.
After the Bears shot five for 20 from three-point range in a 78-69 loss at Stanford on Dec. 14, they were just one for 11 from deep.
The Trojans completed their nonconference schedule, which included wins over top-25 opponents North Carolina State and Washington.
Up next for USC: Trojans open Big Ten play Monday at Nebraska.
It was a game to remember for Londynn Jones. She played with confidence and showed her dribbling skills and displaying her all-around skills as she finished the game with a career-high 28 points in the USC women’s basketball team’s 86-39 win over Cal Poly on Thursday night at Galen Center.
In the first part of the game, Jones was perfect on offense while aggressively defending every time the Mustangs had the ball. When Cal Poly attacked, she came up with steals and completed the play with a field goal, sometimes even adding one more point on a foul.
“I’m just happy we’re figuring it out, starting to finally put the pieces together,” she said. “I know that’s something we’ve been emphasizing in practice, just watching films and putting the pieces together.”
Jones finished the game making 11 out of 16 field goals, and Jazzy Davidson scored 17 points and had nine rebounds.
The Trojans (8-3) looked sluggish in the first half, with Davidson making only three of 11 field goals, and the Mustangs (2-9) grabbing 15 rebounds. But as the game progressed, the USC defense forced Cal Poly to run out the shot clock on multiple occasions and caused 27 turnovers while scoring 39 points off of them.
“We sort of played the way we wanted to, for a majority of the game, and that’s encouraging,” coach Lindsay Gottlieb said.
After losing to Connecticut 79-51 on Saturday, Gottlieb wanted to see her team play with intention while defending, she wanted them to pressure on the ball, and she wanted to see participation from all the players on the court, at once.
Offensively, she wanted her team to do the simple things better. Gottlieb wanted them to create space and have better movement.
“I saw that in practice and I think we saw a lot of it in the game tonight, too,” she said. “But, it’ll continue to be a work in progress.
The Trojans started the third quarter with 10 unanswered points. Cal Poly scored only five points in the quarter, allowing the Trojans to extend their advantage, closing out the third quarter with a 43-point lead, 71-28.
The Trojans finished the game with 15 steals and the bench scoring 45 points. As a whole, the team finished the game with 44 rebounds, with the majority of them coming from the offense.
“I thought our defensive intensity created more open looks for us,” Gottlieb said.
Yakiya Milton was a big part of that with her eight rebounds with four blocks in 10 minutes of play. One of the four blocks came when she stopped a Mustang drive to the basket and protected the rim. Something that Gottlieb preached during practice, she said.
“I try to capitalize on any opportunity I’m given,” Milton said. “I’m trying to play with as much energy and intensity as I can.”
As the Trojans look ahead to a stretch of Big 10 games against Nebraska and UCLA, Gottlieb doesn’t see a starting five. She sees the strengths of her team to be how deep their roster is.
“No one played 30 minutes at all and maybe that’s a little bit atypical, but we do believe that we can play different kinds of lineups, different people who have different skill sets, different looks,” she said.
And with the help of Jones, who has been to the Final Four with UCLA and has played in big conference games, she knows the team will feed off her energy and play with confidence
“I mean, she was wearing the wrong colors or the other colors,” Gottlieb quipped. “But you know, she’s been in situations and that experience is premium.”
“She’s going to bring that confidence and swagger no matter what,” she added.
With three key players out because of injury and USC in desperate need of depth, the Trojans are taking the rare step of adding reinforcements at the midseason mark.
Point guard Kam Woods, who last played at Robert Morris, was added to the Trojans’ roster and cleared to play on Thursday, despite the fact that USC is already a dozen games into the basketball season.
Woods could make an immediate impact for coach Eric Musselman, having averaged 14.9 points, 5.2 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game last year at Robert Morris, where he played alongside current Trojan, Amarion Dickerson. Woods is expected to step into the rotation right away with USC, after the Trojans lost starting point guard Rodney Rice for the season.
What’s not clear is why Woods was still in the transfer portal two months into the college basketball calendar. USC had shown some interest in Woods during the offseason, according to a person familiar with the program who is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, but Woods never signed with a team, despite being a second-team All-Horizon League selection.
Since he was still in the transfer portal and because he has already graduated, Woods is the rare case, outside of an international player or junior college player, that qualifies to be a midseason addition.
Woods has played five years of college basketball, bouncing around between five schools in that span. He started at Troy in 2020-21, before taking the junior college route at Northwest Florida State Community College during the 2021-22 season. He then transferred to North Carolina State, where he played sparingly over 13 games.
Woods landed with Robert Morris last season and emerged as the Colonials’ leading scorer as they won the Horizon League and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament.
So, with this being his sixth year, how is Woods eligible to join another team? Eligibility-wise, he actually falls under the same category as the Trojans’ leading scorer, Chad Baker-Mazara, who is playing his sixth season of college basketball in 2025-26.
Due to the recent ruling in the Diego Pavia case, the season that Woods spent playing junior college does not count against his five years of eligibility. Plus, since Woods was a freshman during the 2020-21 season, he has an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic.
Had Woods played for another team during the first two months of the season, he would not be eligible to join the Trojans in December.
For USC, that fit could be especially fortunate. Without Rice, USC has used a combination of Jerry Easter, Jordan Marsh and Ryan Cornish at point guard. Woods will be the most experienced of the group.
Five-star freshman Alijah Arenas is expected to enter that picture in the coming weeks, too. Arenas was set to rejoin practice this week and will presumably be cleared to play some time in January.
Through a near-perfect nonconference slate, no matter what was thrown USC’s way, whether injuries or other unforeseen circumstances, the Trojans had never lacked for life on the court. It was that endless energy that had helped power them to a 10-1 start.
But for a while Wednesday, that vigor was conspicuously absent against Texas San Antonio, a team that lost four of its last five. Maybe it was the setting, in a mostly empty and eerily quiet Galen Center. Maybe it was the “devastating” news from earlier in the day, as USC announced that point guard Rodney Rice would undergo shoulder surgery and miss the rest of the season.
Whatever it was, USC was eventually able to shake it off Wednesday night, turning a deficit late in the first half to a convincing, 97-70 victory over San Antonio in the second.
The blip, however brief, would beg questions of how a short-handed roster might handle the brutal Big Ten slate that awaits USC in two weeks’ time. The Trojans start that stretch with an especially savage span that includes three top-10 teams in No. 2 Michigan, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 6 Purdue. Whether they can weather that stretch without three players coaches expected to be top contributors should say a lot about where the Trojans are headed this season.
Chad Baker-Mazara reacts after scoring on an offensive rebound in the first half.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“Without them, we’re going to have to grind and play so hard to win games,” coach Eric Musselman said. “We have a lot to clean up, and we have to exceed the opposition from a playing-hard standpoint. We’re undermanned. We don’t have Alijah Arenas. We don’t have Rodney Rice. And we don’t have Amarion Dickerson. That’s a lot.”
That grind was the focus of Musselman’s message to his team at halftime Wednesday, after USC had come out looking unusually lifeless. Through the game’s first 15 minutes, the Trojans were outhustled and outworked on the glass as the Roadrunners drew fouls, forced turnovers and racked up seven early offensive rebounds.
With 3:38 remaining in the first half, they were still trailing the 4-6 Roadrunners, who in their last two had lost to Alabama by 42 and Colorado by 24.
But when the Trojans finally turned it on, in the final minutes of the first half, there was no stopping the onslaught. Ryan Cornish hit a jumper. Ezra Ausar took a steal to the hoop. Chad Baker-Mazara dunked home a missed three. USC finished the first half on a 13-0 run and took control from there.
It did so in the same fashion it had in pretty much every game since Rice went down, by leaning on Baker-Mazara and Ausar, who are averaging a combined 38 points per game.
Both emerged like a shot of adrenaline after halftime. Mazara poured in 17 second-half points to give him 20 total for the game, while Ausar, the nation’s leader in free-throw attempts, continued bullying defenders in the paint.
Ausar finished with a game-high 22 points and added 10 rebounds, giving him his first double-double of the season.
“My energy is contagious, and humbly, once I’m going, everybody is going,” Ausar said. “If my energy ain’t right, my team’s energy ain’t right.”
He’ll be especially critical next month, with a series of bruising Big Ten frontcourts awaiting the Trojans.
“Ezra is going to keep getting better,” Musselman said. “His basketball future is so bright. He hasn’t even tipped what he’s going to be. … We’re gonna rely on Ezra to keep this group together and be a leader, and he’s done that.”
Arenas returns to practice in the coming days and will hopefully be ready to go by mid-January. Others will have to make the mark, until then, if USC hopes to survive that stretch short-handed.
Against San Antonio, it was Cornish who answered the call. The Dartmouth transfer had played more than 15 minutes in a game just once this season before Wednesday. But in his first start at point guard, Cornish came alive with 18 points, including four three-pointers.
“He was at the bottom of the roster almost, and he’s earned what he’s getting,” Musselman said. “We need people to step up, and we need to develop our roster the best that we possibly can, and Ryan’s a great example of someone stepping up.”
USC’s starting quarterback is returning for another season in 2026.
Jayden Maiava made it official Tuesday as the school announced that he had re-signed with the program for the upcoming season, his third with the Trojans.
Maiava led USC to a 9-3 record in his first full season as starter after taking over the job during the final month of the 2023 season. He threw for 3,431 yards, 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He also added six scores on the ground.
That strong performance led to questions of whether Maiava might declare for the NFL draft. Some prognosticators viewed Maiava as one of the better potential quarterback prospects in a draft especially thin on passers.
Instead, Maiava will run it back at USC, where the Trojans are set to return most of their dynamic 2025 offense in 2026 — the exception being their top two wideouts Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane, who both declared for the draft. USC announced earlier this week that it had re-signed No. 1 running back Waymond Jordan and receivers Tanook Hines and Zacharyus Williams for the 2026 season.
Maiava’s return now turns the attention to five-star backup Husan Longstreet, who will have a decision to make about his future at USC. It’s unclear if Longstreet would be willing to wait another season behind Maiava.
USC (9-3), ranked No. 16 in the AP poll, is preparing to play Texas Christian (9-4) on Dec. 30 in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. USC finished 7-2 in its second season in the Big Ten and won four of its last five games, the only setback during that stretch being a 42-27 loss to Oregon, which is the No. 5 seed in the College Football Playoff.
Asked about signing the No. 1 recruiting class for 2026, Riley said: “It was a great day. We tried to keep the focus on building next year’s team. The amount of guys that we signed is a big portion of it and as we start to look ahead … half of our day and maybe even more is pointing towards next year and coming years. Meanwhile, obviously getting ready for this bowl game. It was a lot of hard work to add talent and people who care about this place and starting to put next year’s team together has been exciting here these last few weeks.”
Riley has a 35-27 record in his four seasons at USC and is hoping to improve his bowl record to 3-1. He guided the Trojans to wins in the 2023 Holiday Bowl and 2024 Las Vegas Bowl.
Riley watched the CIF state Open Division bowl game between Santa Margarita (coached by former Trojans quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer) and De La Salle on Saturday and was impressed by the performance of USC commit Trent Mosley, who had 11 catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in the Eagles’ 47-13 win.
“He was someone we targeted very early on,” Riley said. “I thought he was super impressive and it was important. He’s one of the best receivers in the country. He’s proven that and he just played out of his mind. It’s a great family and he’s a really smart kid.”
Asked what advice he gives to players who are deciding what to do next in their careers, Riley said: “Yes, it’s an important decision. The guys that make the right decision no matter what it is get a leg up on the rest of their lives. Consequently, a wrong decision can be catastrophic. That’s the world we all live in. I just try to educate them on their options. I don’t like telling guys you should do this or you shouldn’t do that. It’s more about, here’s this option, this is what it would look like, here’s what you need to consider. Sometimes the decision’s pretty clear one way or another, other times it’s not. I try to give them as much guidance as I possibly can.”
Given that USC will be missing quite a few players who were key contributors throughout the season, Riley is not ruling out the possibility of younger players seeing action against TCU.
“There’s gonna be guys all over the place who are going to have opportunities,” Riley said. “All sides of the ball, all position groups, maybe it’s some of the guys you saw a little bit during the season and in some instances you’ll see guys get some burn in this game that haven’t played at all or very little. Bowl games are great, but days like this are the most valuable part of it because we’re just pouring reps into all of these guys, it’s super competitive and the energy level is just different. All these guys feel it’s their time.”
Riley admitted he and his staff had to make hard decisions based on the incoming freshmen, a majority of whom are spring enrollees.
“It’s huge, it’s a high, high number that are going to be here and it’s important,” he said. “We’ve had to make a bunch of roster decisions in the last couple of weeks. We have a large number of players who have already signed and some of the decisions we had to make were based on knowing what we have coming in, and when you sign as many as we did, you’re going to have tough decisions to make.”
SAN DIEGO — Chad Baker-Mazara scored a season-high 31 and Ezra Ausar scored 22 of his career-high 29 points in the second half before fouling out and USC used the second half to take control and beat San Diego 94-81 on Tuesday night.
Reserve Jaden Brownell scored 16 points for USC (9-1) who once it stopped committing turnovers separated itself from San Diego (3-6).
It was Baker-Mazara’s fourth-straight game scoring 20 or more points. USC shot 62% (29 of 47).
Dominique Ford scored 22 points, Ty-Laur Johnson 13 and reserve Juanse Gorosito 10 for San Diego.
After a tie at 38, Alejandro Aviles’ layup gave San Diego a 48-46 lead a little more than five minutes into the second half. From there, Ausar took over the game with a personal 7-0 run that started a 13-0 outburst and the Trojans were never challenged again.
Despite shooting 55% (11 of 20) in the first half, the Trojans committed 13 turnovers which led to 14 San Diego points. Entering Tuesday, USC averaged 12 turnovers per game. The first half featured eight ties and 10 lead changes.
USC moved its record against the Toreros to 7-0.
Up next
USC hosts former Pac-12 rival Washington State on Sunday.
