Early in the night, it looked as if Washington State was going to shock USC once again.
The Trojans were down 13 points halfway into the first period, they had just lost redshirt junior forward Joshua Morgan to injury, and the Cougars’ big man was well on his way to a career scoring night. Despite all these obstacles, USC rallied together as a team and avenged their New Year’s Day loss in Pullman, taking down Washington State at home 80-70 on Thursday night.
The Cougars entered the game shorthanded, missing five players due to illness, but sophomore forward Mouhamed Gueye wasted no time making his presence felt. In the game’s first seven minutes, Gueye made his first six shots from the floor and scored the first 11 points for WSU. Midway through the first half, he was outscoring the Trojans himself, 16-13. He finished the game with a career-high 31 points and shot 14-for-21 from the floor.
Gueye’s dominance in the low post became even more of a concern once Morgan injured his right ankle on a hard fall to the Galen Center floor five minutes into the game. Morgan had been averaging over 24 minutes a game for USC, and head coach Andy Enfield would have to replace those minutes by committee to try and solidify the paint.
Sophomore Harrison Hornery and freshmen Kijani Wright and Iaroslav Niagu all got minutes at forward after Morgan’s departure, but the majority of the available minutes went to freshman Vince Iwuchukwu.
Iwuchukwu, playing just his sixth collegiate game since suffering cardiac arrest in training camp in July, gave the Trojans a career-high 23 minutes in the frontcourt. He contributed five points in the winning effort, but his biggest contribution was on the defensive side.
With USC leading by three points with under two minutes remaining, Iwuchukwu sent back a shot in the low post from junior guard Justin Powell and, after a WSU offensive rebound, ventured all the way out to the 3-point line to reject a triple from junior guard TJ Bamba as the shot clock expired. Those were two of the four blocks Iwuchukwu recorded in the game, another career best.
“Vince was terrific, he played very hard,” Enfield said after the game. “He’s starting to get a good rhythm. It’s so hard for him when you go through what he did. When you don’t play, forget about the medical issue, I’m talking about not playing, we threw him into Pac-12 play in the middle of the season, and it takes a little bit to adjust. I thought he was great defensively.”
Offensively, the Trojans were once again led by both fifth-year guard Drew Peterson and senior guard Boogie Ellis. Peterson was USC’s best source of offense in the first half, getting the Trojans out of an early 5-for-14 shooting slump with his mid-range jump shot.
Peterson shot 6-for-9 in the first half and helped USC rip off a 20-4 run after falling behind by 13 points to storm ahead. Peterson did not score quite as often after halftime, but he made one of the biggest shots of the game with an isolation corner three to put the Trojans up by six with 52 seconds remaining. Peterson finished his night with 20 points, shooting 8-for-13.
“It was a little bit messy for 25 seconds,” Peterson joked about his late three. “Give Gueye credit, he was playing some good defense in the second half…. I noticed he was giving me some space, so I kept trying to drive on him. After two attempts of trying to drive him, I just kind of took advantage of a little bit of space, stepped back, and thankfully got the shot to fall down.
While Ellis got off to a much slower start than Peterson did, missing his first four shots from the field and finishing 2-for-8 in the first half, his confidence never faltered. Instead, he was willing to shoot from well beyond the 3-point arc, and the shots were falling. Five 3-point makes boosted Ellis to a 23-point effort to lead USC; he has averaged 24 points in his last three games.
“I actually watched this video, it was Gilbert Arenas,” Ellis said. “He said that if you start the game 0-for-5, and in the second half you go 5-for-5, it’s still a great game. If you start the first half 5-for-5 and you finish 0-for-5, it’s still a great game. At the end of the day, I’m always in the gym and I’m working on my game, so I have extreme confidence even when I’m missing shots. I feel like the younger me would check out of the game if I’m not making shots, but I’m believing in myself and trusting my work.”
As the Trojans’ starting point guard, Ellis was also instrumental in helping the Trojans protect the basketball. USC only turned the ball over seven times in the game, the second fewest in a game this season.
Finally, the Trojans were able to get to the line at a much higher rate than their opponents, especially in the second half. The Cougars found themselves in foul trouble, and USC was in the double-bonus before the 10-minute mark of the second half. The Trojans shot 22 of their 24 free throws in the second half — making 17 — compared to 13 total attempts and eight makes by Washington State. USC’s ability to consistently find points at the charity stripe down the stretch was a crucial factor in keeping the Cougars at bay.
The win improves the Trojans to 16-6 on the season, and 8-3 in the Pac-12. USC has now won five of its last six games and 11 in a row at Galen Center. The team will wrap up a three-game homestand on Saturday night against the Washington Huskies at 6:30 p.m.