USC Women's Basketball: Trojans Role Player Explains Confidence After Huge Night Vs UCLA

We get it.

Your No. 2-ranked USC Women of Troy will be playing for the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament title tomorrow against the event's top-seeded Stanford Cardinal, thanks to a superlative stint against the UCLA Bruins last night.

The Trojans outlasted the Bruins in double overtime, 80-70. All-American freshman shooting guard JuJu Watkins may have gotten the spotlight, thanks to her ability to grit through an ankle injury to the tune of an inefficient 33 points (on 9-of-27 shooting from the field) and 10 rebounds.

But graduate students McKenzie Forbes and Kaitlyn Davis, plus junior center Rayah Marshall, did a lot of the defensive dirty work to help secure the win in Vegas on Friday, wearing down the Bruins with an aggressive, swarming attack.

Davis explained her confidence postgame, Luca Evans of The Orange County Register writes.

"I felt like, all of us collectively came into it with a confidence, especially when the game is that tight... knowing that we can lock in and we've done it before," Davis reflected.

Across 25 contests this year (19 starts), the six-foot wing, a two-time All-Ivy League selection while an undergrad at Columbia, is averaging 6.3 points on 59.8% shooting from the floor, 5.9 rebounds and 1.6 dimes.