Kayla Williams provides senior leadership for USC in win at Cal

The USC Trojans defeated the Cal Golden Bears on Sunday afternoon in Berkeley, mostly because JuJu Watkins is the best freshman in college basketball and the Pac-12. Watkins scored 29 points and once again led by example. She provides statistical output and team leadership in equal measure, and there’s no question the Trojans have a high ceiling mostly because of the “Good JuJu” on their roster.

However, other players on the roster will need to add to the effort if USC is to max out. On Sunday in Berkeley, we saw Kaitlyn Davis and Rayah Marshall step up. We saw McKenzie Forbes hit the boards and make more tough defensive plays. Kayla Padilla hit three more 3-pointers.

Another Kayla on the USC roster wanted to make sure she wasn’t left out.

Kayla Williams is a senior. She averaged nearly 25 minutes per game last season. This year, with JuJu Watkins on the roster and other transfers getting most of the playing time, Williams is averaging only 10 minutes per game. It can’t be easy for a senior to accept a reduced role. Some players would have transferred out of the program. Williams wanted to stay and be special with this team and this set of teammates. When called upon, Williams had to be ready, even though she doesn’t get extended minutes.

Sure enough, in the middle of the fourth quarter, with the Trojans being roped into a close game due to Cal’s hot 3-point shooting, Lindsay Gottlieb wanted someone with veteran experience on the floor for USC. Enter Williams, who dealt with a lot of late-game pressure last season as a Trojan. That familiarity with crunch time created a composed player on Sunday. Williams — with USC clinging to a very tenuous 68-66 lead — hit a massive 3-pointer, arguably the biggest shot of the game, with five minutes left for a 71-66 lead. That shot did provide USC the decisive amount of points. The Trojans allowed only 69 to Cal, so that triple for 71 was a threshold-creating bucket. Williams finished with 6 points in a game USC won by 10. Pretty significant, yes? USC’s role-player roster rallied around JuJu Watkins to power the Trojans to a 16-4 overall record and a weekend sweep of the Bay Area schools.

Role players such as Kayla Williams, by doing their job when called upon — even if not receiving extended minutes — make a good team great. This is how USC can make a deep run in March.

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