USC headed to Palm Springs this weekend for a charity matchup against No. 6 Gonzaga. It was only the Trojans second time playing together, but you’d never know it based on their thrilling 96-93 win against the Bulldogs.
The Trojans’ steady offensive front kept the lead from the Bulldogs’ possession for over 16 minutes throughout the first half, peaking with a seven-point lead. With halftime in sight, Gonzaga chipped away the deficit with an 8-0 run and a buzzer-beating jumper from redshirt sophomore forward Braden Huff sent the Bulldogs into halftime with a two-point lead.
Despite only shooting 36.7%, Gonzaga’s offense persisted and was able to create enough shots to outscore USC over the first 20 minutes.
“That’s the best I’ve ever seen a team execute in the [baseline out-of-bounds] since I’ve been coaching,” Musselman said. “They cut hard, they got to their spots really well… There’s not a lot of teams that can get the ball across half court in the first six seconds like they do, and then to have the discipline if they don’t score in transition to get into their ball screen motion.”
Musselman advised his players at halftime to keep driving the ball.
“Defensively, there was a stretch late-first half that we let our guard down a little bit,” Musselman said. “We would make a three, and then they would come down and make a three. That was frustrating, that we didn’t lock down after we made a three because the game was so close.”
The Trojans’ necessary adjustments in the second half resulted in a 7-2 run out of the gate. The team doubled down just a couple of minutes later with a clean 10-0 run. An improved 65.5% shooting from the field — compared to 44.4% in the first half — translated into 59 second-half points.
USC’s strong offense wasn’t able to finish the job alone, as Gonzaga also improved its shooting by nearly 20%. Ultimately, it was the Trojans’ defensive prowess that put the Bulldogs in their cage.
“We focused a lot on transition defense,” Musselman said. “We focused a lot on post defense because they’re a little bit bigger than us. I thought the job we did on their three bigs was phenomenal.”
The Trojans picked up 14 defensive rebounds compared to Gonzaga’s nine. Graduate transfer forward Saint Thomas echoed Musselman’s emphasis on Gonzaga’s physicality in the paint, something he acknowledged would be a concern heading into the game.
“Biggest concern was probably their big, [redshirt senior Graham] Ike,” Thomas said. “[He] averaged 17 and eight last year, and he is just a big dominance — probably the best big [in] college basketball.”
Thomas’ 21 points against UTSA gave the Trojans their first preseason win, but after suffering a broken nose in that game, Thomas adopted a more supporting role against Gonzaga.
“My mentality was just trying to be there for my teammates… in every way possible,” Thomas said. “I had a mask on today, so it was kind of hard to see and shoot.”
The Northern Colorado transfer’s 38 minutes of playing time yielded consistency across the stats sheet, including five rebounds and five assists.
Fellow transfers graduate forward Terrance Williams II and junior guard Desmond Claude each found their groove in the second half.
Musselman acknowledged that Williams II’s four years of experience playing at Michigan makes him a good option for capitalizing on screen and spot-up plays. His ability to find open shots gave him 20 points, 16 of those coming in the second half.
Claude had 15 of his own second-half points. His turnaround jumper at 14:28 sent the Trojans on a 10-0 run that put them up by double digits. But his five points in the final two minutes handed USC the lead once and for all.
“If you would have told me before the game that we would lead for 30 minutes or 29 minutes – that’s pretty hard to do against them, and it’s really hard to do when we’ve only had one game together,” Musselman said.
The Trojans are back at home on November 4 at 7 p.m. for their season opener against Chattanooga and have a month of non-conference play before their Big Ten debut against Oregon on December 4.