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Originally published February 5, 2012 at 4:48 PM | Page modified February 5, 2012 at 9:44 PM
Huskies women beat USC 67-61 to snap road skid in L.A.
Freshman point guard Jazmine Davis scored 26 points as Washington finally got a road win against a Los Angeles school.
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LOS ANGELES — The seniors made the sense of urgency clear to Jazmine Davis and the other younger players on the University of Washington women's basketball team.
"Regina (Rogers) made it a big deal," said Davis, the Huskies' freshman point guard. "She's said, 'We've got to win in L.A. I can't lose to those teams in L.A.' The seniors made it a big deal we needed to win in L.A."
Led by a game-high 26 points from Davis, Washington won in Los Angeles on Sunday for the first time in nearly six years. The Huskies rallied for a 67-61 victory over USC in the Pac-12 Conference contest at the Galen Center, snapping a seven-game losing streak against the Trojans and giving Washington its first win at an L.A. school since Feb. 9, 2006 — an overtime win at USC.
"It feels great," said senior forward Mollie Williams. "We came here last year and were pretty close and lost in overtime. So just to get here in regulation is pretty good."
Williams contributed 14 points with 11 rebounds and three steals. Rogers added 13 points and seven rebounds for the Huskies (12-9, 4-7 Pac-12).
Washington trailed 37-34 at halftime and saw the gap grow to eight before steadily gaining momentum.
"The second half, we were much better defensively," Washington coach Kevin McGuff said. "We were much better on the boards. I really think that's what made the difference."
After making just one of their first 10 shots in the second half, with only two field goals in 10 minutes, the Huskies surged in the final 10 minutes, beginning with a six-point run.
A three-pointer by Williams evened the score at 51-51 with 5:33 left, the first time since midway through the first half that the Huskies didn't trail. A little more than a minute later, a pair of free throws by Mercedes Wetmore gave Washington the lead for good.
The Trojans had a chance to tie it on a three-point attempt by Alexyz Vaioletama with 34 seconds remaining. But the shot missed and Williams grabbed the rebound to start a busy final 31 seconds in which Washington's lead grew to eight points.
Williams helped seal the win with five free throws in the closing seconds, sending the Huskies home with a split of the trip that began with an overtime loss Thursday at UCLA.
"It's amazing," Davis said. "We've been going through kind of a drought. The UCLA game was really tough. But we just focused on we really need to get a win. We all realized that, so we played hard to the end."
Davis, who had a season-high five three-pointers, was key in keeping Washington close after a slow start. She accounted for more than half of the Huskies' scoring in the first half with 18 of her 26 points.
Davis had already matched her season high for three-pointers in a game with four in the first half.
Washington had to dig itself out of an early hole after the Huskies missed their first six shots and were scoreless almost five minutes into the contest. USC (12-10, 6-5) led 9-0 before Davis hit a three-pointer with 15:05 left in the half for Washington's first points.
A little more than five minutes later, Washington had rallied to take its first lead, 16-15, on a layup by Davis. A three-point play by Wetmore with 7:55 left provided the Huskies' only other lead of the half at 21-20.
Five USC players scored in double figures, led by Ashley Corral's 19 points. Cassie Harberts added 12 points and 11 rebounds.
"I'm just real happy for our players," McGuff said. "They've really been playing hard and preparing well for games, and it's nice to see everything come to fruition today with this win. ...
"I give our players a lot of credit. That was a devastating loss on Thursday. It shows character for our players to bounce back and get a really, really good win here."
| WASHINGTON | |||||||
| min | fgm-a | ftm-a | or-t | a | pf | pts | |
| Barlow | 27 | 1-3 | 2-4 | 2-5 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Argens | 12 | 0-5 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rogers | 34 | 5-13 | 3-4 | 2-7 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
| Wetmore | 36 | 2-3 | 3-3 | 0-5 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| Davis | 37 | 7-18 | 7-8 | 0-2 | 0 | 0 | 26 |
| McCn-Smith | 8 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A.Williams | 11 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| M.Williams | 35 | 3-8 | 7-8 | 3-11 | 3 | 3 | 14 |
| 200 | 19-51 | 22-27 | 10-38 | 7 | 11 | 67 | |
| USC | |||||||
| min | fgm-a | ftm-a | or-t | a | pf | pts | |
| Marinacci | 25 | 1-8 | 2-4 | 2-8 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Harberts | 38 | 5-14 | 2-2 | 5-11 | 2 | 3 | 12 |
| S.Gilbreath | 16 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-4 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Crook | 27 | 1-7 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Corral | 38 | 6-14 | 2-2 | 1-1 | 5 | 3 | 19 |
| Bradley | 11 | 4-5 | 0-0 | 3-5 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| B.Gilbreath | 25 | 4-11 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
| Vaioletama | 17 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 2-5 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Scott | 3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 200 | 23-64 | 6-10 | 13-39 | 13 | 18 | 61 | |
| Washington | 34 | 33 | — | 67 |
| USC | 37 | 24 | — | 61 |
Attendance: 552. Officials: Marianne Karp, Shelley Nakasone, Karen Lasuik.
