COLLEGE PARK, Maryland — Southern California’s women’s basketball seemed to be having an off night. It was understandable.
Large chunks of their city are burning back home , while the team is on a two-game East Coast swing over five days that has coincided with a burst of frigid weather.
No. 7 Maryland, and many of 14,735 fans who showed up at Xfinity Center, were throwing everything they had at No. 5 USC: Driving and spinning layups, quick floaters and jumpers in the lane and the urgency of a team playing to stay undefeated.
But, trailing 68-61 with about five minutes to play, the Trojans felt a calm come over them. It has been with them all season.
“We just kind of have this unwavering confidence in ourselves,” says JuJu Watkins, a sophomore guard and national player of the year candidate for USC.
“A lot of it comes from the games you’ve already been through in tough moments in those big games. So I think that we had a lot of confidence in ourselves and what we work on every day, and it was just a matter of coming together and closing the game out.”