COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — 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 Southern California to a 71-67 victory over No. 8 seed Clemson on Saturday.
Davidson, a 6-foot-1 freshman, 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.
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.
Kara Dunn added 22 points for USC, which 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 9 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.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
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