Throughout the 2025–26 season, USC women’s basketball has had a clear weakness: facing top competition. Heading into Sunday morning’s matchup with No. 10 Ohio State, the Trojans were 1-7 against teams currently ranked in the Associated Press’ Top 25 and 16-2 against the rest of the field, making a road trip to Columbus, Ohio, seem like a death sentence.

And yet, for the first three quarters of Sunday’s game, USC looked more than capable of breaking the curse. The Trojans enjoyed their most efficient offensive night of the season, shooting 54% overall and 44% from 3-point range, and found themselves leading 65-61 with under nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

However, a game-long struggle with turnovers finally caught up to USC in the fourth — and the wheels flew off. Across the next six minutes, the Buckeyes exploded for an 18-1 run as the Trojans missed six straight shots and committed six turnovers, delivering a death blow to their upset chances that seemed fairly high just minutes before.

When the dust settled, USC (17-10, 9-7 Big Ten) trudged out of Columbus with an 88-83 loss to Ohio State (23-5, 12-4), snapping a six-game winning streak and falling just short of a massive upset victory that would have all but guaranteed the Trojans an NCAA Tournament bid.

Davidson sees career night in points, turnovers

USC’s night was unlike any it had seen all year — for better and for worse. The Trojans’ 54% mark from the field was their highest of the season, but their 25 turnovers and 25 fouls were both their most in a game thus far.

No player better exemplified these trends than freshman guard Jazzy Davidson, who played all 40 minutes for the third time in four games. Davidson went off for a career-high 32 points, the first 30-point performance by a Trojan this season, along with six rebounds and four assists; however, she also committed a career-high nine turnovers and fouled out of a game for the first time.

Davidson’s point total was fueled by an impressive 6-for-9 clip from deep, propelling USC — which ranks near the bottom of the Big Ten in 3-point percentage — to a strong 11-for-25 mark as a team. Three of those treys came via sophomore forward Dayana Mendes, who came off the bench for 13 points on 4-for-6 shooting — both the best of her Trojan career.

The remaining two 3-pointers were courtesy of sophomore guard Kennedy Smith, who continued a recent stretch of success with 18 points on a 6-for-9 clip. After a rough start to the season in which she failed to shoot over 40% in any of her first 12 appearances, Smith has caught fire as of late, hitting at least 50% of her shots in five of her last six games.

On the other hand, senior guard Kara Dunn struggled to produce results for USC, missing the double-digit mark for the first time since a blowout loss to No. 1 UConn (29-0, 18-0 Big East) on Dec. 13, 2025. Dunn recorded just 8 points, missing all three of her 3-point attempts, and played only 27 minutes after fouling out for the first time this season.

Cambridge leads red-hot Buckeye attack

Though the Trojans’ offense was in top form, their defense failed to meet the same standard, letting Ohio State make 53% of its shots — tied with a disastrous Jan. 3 loss to No. 2 UCLA (27-1, 17-0 Big Ten) for their highest field-goal percentage allowed this season. 

All five Buckeye starters scored in the double-digits, headlined by sophomore guard Jaloni Cambridge, who ranks second in the Big Ten in points per game and seventh in the country. Cambridge went toe-to-toe with Davidson’s powerful performance, notching 33 points on 12-for-21 shooting.

Sixteen of those points came in the fourth quarter as Cambridge took over on offense, willing her team to pull ahead and avoid the upset. As time wound down and USC got desperate, Ohio State constantly fed her the ball to get her to the free-throw line, where she made 8-of-9 attempts in the second half — as many as the Trojans’ entire roster made in the same span.

Though the Buckeyes were favored entering the game, Sunday’s loss remains a disappointing one for Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb and company, who would likely have locked up an at-large NCAA Tournament bid had they finished off the upset. Nevertheless, with just two games left to play in the regular season, USC is still in a good position to hear its name called come Selection Sunday.

The Trojans will finish off their road trip at Penn State (10-17, 3-13) on Wednesday at 3 p.m. before returning home for a rematch with UCLA on Sunday at 3 p.m. With a spot in the Big Ten Tournament already secured, USC will have at least one additional chance to make its case for the postseason, but a win against the Nittany Lions — and certainly one against the Bruins — could get the job done before then.