Davidson leads a stifling defense for Trojans

The USC freshman has three steals, and Dunn's three sparks the offense in victory.

- BY RYAN KARTJE

NATALIE FRALEY is cut off by Vivian Iwchukwu, center, and Jazzy Davidson.

(MELINA PIZANO Getty Image)

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 USC found its offensive mojo again, bouncing back from Saturday's loss to South Carolina to beat Portland 78-51 at Galen Center.

It had a suffocating defensive effort to thank for that. No one was wondering where its mojo was on that end Tuesday as USC forced a stunning 29 turnovers, its most since last November, when the Trojans tallied a record 42 against Cal State Northridge. Five players had multiple steals in the win.