No. 9 USC Is Saved by the Buzzer, Outlasts No. 8 Clemson in Overtime Classic

Mia Moore had the shot of her life, an off-balance, game-deciding, buzzer-beating prayer of a three. It would break a tie and put No. 8 Clemson over No. 9 USC. And for a moment, it did, until it was clear that it actually did not.

As the shot fell, Moore’s teammates emptied the bench in triumph, Clemson’s band and cheerleaders jubilant right alongside them. But the referees went to check the game tape: They were reviewing both whether Moore had gotten the shot off in time and whether she had been fouled before the clock expired. They ruled that she had not. Moore’s shot had been just a fraction of a second late, and so had any potential foul, meaning the game would remain tied and overtime would follow.

NO WAYYYY🤯#MarchMadness x 🎥 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/c6Sqem5iWx
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 21, 2026

That was appropriate for a frenetic game that ultimately saw 19 lead changes, seven ties and a remarkable level of chaos down the stretch. USC pulled it out in overtime, 71–67, to advance to the round of 32. And in an opening tournament round that has otherwise been fairly uneventful, it was the most exciting contest of the weekend, at least so far.

“Phew,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said when asked for her opening statement, appearing just as physically and mentally exhausted as a coach can possibly be in the first round. “That was a great NCAA tournament game.”

The overtime loss was a tough blow for Clemson, in the NCAA tournament for just the second time in the last 20 years, trying to rebuild under second-year coach Shawn Poppie. “Unfortunately, today Southern Cal was, I guess, one possession, or 0.1 second better than us,” he said. And it was a gritty showcase for USC, which has spent this season without injured star JuJu Watkins but has its share of interesting talent elsewhere on the roster, too.

It was the first career tournament game for Big Ten freshman of the year Jazzy Davidson. The rangy, versatile 6'1" guard has generally met the hype over the course of the season and shown flashes of excellence. But she has not put together any one game as complete as what she did against Clemson on Saturday. With 31 points, six rebounds and five assists, Davidson led all scorers, and her back-to-back three-pointers in overtime sealed the game for USC.

“I literally told her, ‘You don’t have to get me a gift ever again,’ ” USC senior Kara Dunn said of Davidson. “Because those two shots in overtime were enough.”

Her USC teammates could offer a similar gift waiver to Dunn herself. The senior scored 11 of her 22 points in the fourth quarter—battling for the chance to extend her college basketball career by one more game. It was devastating to see Moore’s buzzer beater hit for Clemson and believe that might be it. (“That emotion of, you think your college career might be over, to then having to go play overtime—it’s pretty unreal,” said Gottlieb.) Davidson and the Trojans rallied in overtime to make sure that Dunn got one more game.

“We don’t get second chances in life,” Dunn said. “So we needed to take advantage of that, and I felt like we did.”

The reward for USC is playing No. 1 seed South Carolina on Monday. These programs met earlier this season back in November, a confident, easy 69–52 win for the Gamecocks. But it’s worth noting that it was among the first games of Davidson’s college career, and she finished with just eight points, tied for her lowest scoring output of the year. Expect more from her in the rematch.

“Look how much she’s growing in a role for us where she’s relied upon to do all those things for us to win a game in a big-time, close game,” Gottlieb said on Saturday. “We ask her to make big shots. We ask her to assist passes, play a ton of minutes. She’s a really, really just a special basketball player and a really good teammate.”

More March Madness from Sports Illustrated