It took a strong second half performance to send the “Muss Bus” off in the right direction, but the Trojans came out victorious in their 84-63 exhibition win against UTSA on Tuesday night in head coach Eric Musselman’s official USC debut.
The former Arkansas head coach was hired as the Trojans’ head coach back in April and questions about the team’s chemistry and dynamic rose with their inaugural season in the Big Ten Conference. The win won’t count toward anything, but USC fans got a good look at what the Musselman era might offer.
“Tonight was actually better than I thought, to be honest,” Musselman said.
From the start, USC’s graduate forward Saint Thomas gave the Trojans a quick 5-0 lead and they never looked back.
The Northern Colorado transfer led his team in scoring with 21 points, two assists and a near perfect seven of eight field goals.
“The thing that impresses me the most about Saint Thomas is that he only took eight shots,” Musselman said.
Throughout the offseason, Musselman was unsure of who the potential stars would be in this squad. It’s clear Thomas might just be the answer to his question.
“Coach is just letting me play everything on the court, I came here to do that. I just want to be on the court, I don’t care what position it is,” Thomas said. “I just want to play for coach Musselman.”
UTSA managed to tie the game at five a piece early in the half, but that was as close as the Roadrunners came.
Still, the Roadrunners managed to keep the score close throughout the first half. Even with the lead, the Trojans committed seven turnovers that ultimately led to an offensive run late in the half for UTSA. The Texas squad eventually cut into the lead and went into halftime trailing USC 35-32.
“I thought the first half we were a little bit discombobulated, [UTSA] did a good amount of pressure,” Musselman said. “I didn’t expect us to play flawless basketball. We turned the ball over way too much in the first half.”
USC came into the second half swinging.
In the first four minutes, the Trojans went on an 11-2 run that pushed their lead to double digits. Thomas and his team continued to pour it onto UTSA. With the help of guard junior Desmond Claude — a transfer from Xavier — they managed to outperform the Roadrunners in all facets of the game, which included a 24-point lead late in the second half to seal the Trojan win.
Claude ended the night behind Thomas in scoring with 14 points and five assists.
“We’re really hoping to be at the top [of the Big Ten]. We just have to prove people wrong,” Claude said. “Every game in the Big Ten is going to be a fight, there’s a lot of good teams. We just have to be ready to come play our best.”
USC will have one more exhibition matchup against Gonzaga on Saturday, October 26 before beginning its regular season.