INDIANAPOLIS — Sitting at her locker,Jazzy Davidsonwiped a tear from the corner of her eye as two reporters approached.
Bravely trying to keep her composure, the USC star freshman described the challenges of trying to play through a right shoulder injury that prevented her from doing much of anything.
“I mean, it’s definitely like something in the back of your mind,” Davidson said, “when you can’t lift one of your arms.”
Davidson briefly departedher team’s opener in the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournamentafter getting tangled up with Washington’s Avery Howell while fighting for a loose ball. How hard was it to go back out there and compete with that sort of injury?
“I just wanted to still try to impact the game,” Davidson said, the tears starting to flow as teammate Sitaya Fagan rubbed her leg reassuringly. “Yeah.”
With their best player clearly at less than full strength, the ninth-seeded Trojans folded during a 76-64 loss to the eighth-seeded Huskies on Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The setback represented a fourth consecutive defeat for a team stumbling into March.
The metaphor picked up momentum when coach Lindsay Gottlieb tripped while ascending the stairs to a platform for postgame interviews, though she good-naturedly joked about the slip.
Now the Trojans face a bigger question than where they’ll be sent for the opening round of the NCAA Tournament: Will their top player be available?
Davidson said she was scheduled to get an MRI on Friday, the results of which could determine her team’s postseason fate.
A significant injury would be another cruel blow to a team already missing superstar JuJu Watkins, who has been sidelined the entire season while recovering from a knee injury.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
