For many people, the new year represents an opportunity for growth: starting fresh with a clean slate and improving oneself in any way possible.

For USC women’s basketball, however, the new year has been quite the opposite.

In their first game as an unranked team since the 2022-23 season, the Trojans (10-7, 2-4 Big Ten) took their fourth straight loss to open 2026, falling 62-55 to No. 12 Maryland (17-2, 5-2) on Thursday. USC led for much of the first half and entered halftime up 28-27, but couldn’t keep it together down the stretch against one of the top teams in the Big Ten.

“This one is hard,” Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb said in a postgame news conference. “It hurts, but it hurts more when you lay it on the line, and I thought our team laid it on the line.”

The Trojans controlled the opening minutes largely thanks to the Terrapins’ turnover troubles. Maryland gave up the ball 13 times in the first half to USC’s three, allowing Gottlieb’s squad to stay afloat despite shooting at a clip nearly 20% worse than their opponents.

Two of those turnovers came via steals from freshman guard Jazzy Davidson, who started the game red-hot offensively with 12 of the Trojans’ 20 first-quarter points; however, she went ice-cold down the stretch, failing to score a single point in the last three quarters and missing her last 16 shots.

Davidson’s late shooting woes were part of a much greater problem throughout the Trojans’ lineup as they made just 28% of their shots during the game, including an abysmal 5-for-32 mark from beyond the arc. The Terrapins shot 52% in the first half and 39% overall, allowing them to come away with the lead despite their turnover issues.

“We shot horribly,” Gottlieb said. “Some were rushed, but some were great looks. We’ve been shooting at a really high clip, and we didn’t make it [today].”

With Davidson struggling, however, senior guard Kara Dunn carried offensively in the second half, finishing with a team-high 21 points and tying for the lead with five assists and five rebounds. Dunn represented USC’s only source of offense from 3-point land, making 4-of-12 attempts; the rest of the roster shot just 1-for-20.

“My number was called — it’s not something that I’m not used to,” Dunn said in a postgame news conference. “Stepping up and being the player that I know that I can be, and knowing that Coach Lindsay trusts me for that, and my team trusts me for that — I’ve enjoyed it.”

Though senior guard Londynn Jones and junior guard Malia Samuels are typically reliable shooters, they were nowhere to be found Thursday night, combining to make just 2-of-19 field goal attempts. 

Jones also got into foul trouble early, picking up two fouls in the game’s first five minutes, as a part of what would later become a trend for the Trojans: After playing mostly clean ball in the first half, USC committed nine fouls in the third quarter and eight in the fourth, giving Maryland the chance to pull away late.

For the third straight game, the Trojans were without sophomore guard Kennedy Smith, whose absence has proven difficult to overcome — though Gottlieb said after the game that she expects Smith to return to action “sooner rather than later.” In her place, redshirt freshman Laura Williams made the first start of her collegiate career, shooting 2-for-3 and grabbing a rebound in 13 minutes played.

“With Kennedy out, the whole team knew that we need to step up,” Dunn said. “She’s such a versatile player.”

With the loss, USC dropped to 2-4 in Big Ten play after taking just one loss in 17 regular-season conference games last season. The hole left by star junior guard JuJu Watkins may be too big to fill — before Thursday’s game, ESPN’s Charlie Creme projected Gottlieb’s squad as a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and yet another loss may knock them out of the picture altogether. 

Still searching for their first win of the year, the Trojans will turn to a home matchup against Purdue (10-7, 2-4) on Sunday at 2 p.m.