The USC Trojans have a chance to be great in women’s basketball because of JuJu Watkins, but in order for all the pieces of the puzzle to fully come together, USC needs big contributions from its role players. One such role player missed several games earlier in the season, particularly in December, due to an injury. Kaitlyn Davis was slowy eased back into the rotation. Lindsay Gottlieb did not overload her with minutes. As with Rayah Marshall, who was sick a few weeks ago, health has been an obstacle for Davis this season.
Sunday at Cal, she looked a lot more like the player who helped USC roar out of the gate in November. Davis posted 10 points and 8 rebounds against the Golden Bears. USC would not have beaten Cal without those contributions from an important frontcourt player.
Davis notably fouled out in the Stanford game on Friday. USC survived that episode and was able to benefit from Davis having relatively fresh legs on Sunday in Berkeley, two days later. Davis and frontcourt teammate Rayah Marshall were active on defense and on the glass. USC gave up a lot of 3-pointers to Cal in this game (10) but established territorial superiority near the rim, winning the rebounding battle 35-32.
If Kaitlyn Davis is back, and if she can consistently replicate the kind of performance she offered against Cal, USC’s ceiling will rise considerably in March.
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