COLUMBIA, S.C. — Freshman Jazzy Davidson scored 31 points in her women’s NCAA tournament debut, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:03 left in overtime, to lift ninth-seeded USC to a 71-67 victory over 8-seed Clemson on Saturday.
The 6-foot-1 Davidson stroked a perfect shot from the right side to send the Trojans (18-13) into a second-round matchup with top seed South Carolina on Monday.
It looked like Clemson had won when Mia Moore flipped in a running basket at the regulation buzzer and the Tigers ran onto the court in celebration. But officials reviewed the play and found the shot clock had not properly started with 4.4 seconds to play when Clemson inbounded the ball, and they waved off the basket.
USC players watched in disappointment until officials moved them toward their bench for a review. When the referees announced their decision, the Trojans prepared themselves to play another five minutes.
“I mean, those are the things that happen in March,” Davidson said of Moore’s apparent buzzer-beater. “None of us want our season to be over, so it was a little crushing to see that, but when we found out we were going into overtime, just mental reset. We all came back together.”
Kara Dunn, who finished with 22 points, urged her teammates to lock in for as long as they had left.
“We said, ‘You don’t get second chances in life,’ so we took advantage,” she said.
Clemson led 64-61 with 2:34 to play in OT when Davidson got going. She hit a tying 3-pointer and then put USC ahead to stay on the next possession after Malia Samuels gathered Davidson’s missed shot and got it back to Davidson for the go-ahead basket.
The dynamic freshman, who came in leading the team in scoring at 17.6 points, played all 45 minutes and finished a point shy of her career high.
USC had reached the Elite Eight the past two years but played the entire season without star JuJu Watkins, who is recovering from a torn ACL suffered in last year’s NCAA tournament.
Clemson got within 70-67 on Morgan Lee’s 3-pointer with nine seconds left, but Samuels made a free throw to seal it.
Taylor Johnson-Matthews scored 16 points for Clemson, and Raven Thompson added 11 points and 12 rebounds.
The Tigers and second-year coach Shawn Poppie were back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019, which was also the last time the team advanced into the second round.
Poppie, who looked dazed and disappointed with the result, was proud of his team’s resolve.
“Unfortunately, today, I thought Southern Cal was one possession or 0.1 second better than us,” Poppie said.
USC faces the Gamecocks for a second time this season. The teams played in November in Los Angeles, a 69-52 South Carolina victory.
