Christmas came early for the Trojans on Sunday with a dominant 89-63 win against Montana State at Galen Center. Fans collected their “Muss Bus” Christmas sweaters and toy drive gifts, but USC sent the Bobcats home with empty stockings.
The Trojans had their longest stretch of downtime this season following a win over Washington on December 7, but a week spent focusing on academic exams didn’t disrupt momentum. USC opened the game full-speed ahead, trouncing the Bobcats in a brutal 27-5 run for the visitors in the first seven minutes.
“This team, even in the games that we didn’t really play good… it’s the first team I’ve ever had in all the years where almost every game we haven’t fallen behind at all,” head coach Eric Musselman said.
USC found itself up 5-0 when Montana State joined the scoreboard and held the lead for the entirety of the game. Graduate guard Chibuzo Agbo helped forge early momentum with two 3-pointers while graduate forward Rashaun Agee shot an efficient three-for-four from the field and made all four free-throw attempts.
“[Agee] has played phenomenal,” Musselman said of the forward’s performance in the last two games. “He gives us energy, loose ball-getting and he ranges rebounds outside his area.”
Another Trojan contributing to that 27-5 run was graduate forward Saint Thomas, whose steal followed by a dunk sent a roar of cheer through the crowd of cardinal-and-gold Christmas sweaters. Thomas — leading the team in rebounds, assists and steals — finished the game with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
Aside from a stealthy 47 first-half points, the Trojans also put forth their best defensive performance in any half of the season so far. Montana State only sank one basket in the first seven minutes of the game and gave up five turnovers, contributing to their worst offensive half of the season, scoring just 21 points.
After USC’s three consecutive losses leading up to the Washington game, Musselman insisted on bringing in defensive reinforcements. The former NBA head coach asked other coaches for some defensive inspiration to implement into his practices.
“We called a bunch of NBA teams too and just asked them for different defensive drills,” Musselman said. “I thought that helped us because they were completely new and different than what our guys had seen… We did a lot of two-on-two, pick and roll defensively live [ball] a lot, and we’ve continued with that probably for about 14 days now.”
Musselman mentioned after Sunday’s game that one of the team’s focuses was to interfere with Montana State’s 3-point shooting. The two weeks of repping professional drills proved beneficial as USC forced the Bobcats to shoot only 2-11 from the arc.
“This whole week, we just did defensive drills and defensive stations,” Thomas said. “Those are daily vitamins that you see out there in the game that we’re actually implementing into our everyday lifestyle.”
The vitamins are working. USC picked up 37 defensive rebounds against Montana State – having averaged 22.6 per game so far this season – and finished the game with a season-high 49 total boards.
While USC’s first-half defense placed the team in an opportune position heading into halftime, the Trojans struggled to maintain the same level of defensive ferocity coming out of the locker room.
The Bobcats kept up with the Trojans offensively, clawing their way to an equal 42 second-half points, but it wasn’t enough to eradicate the 26-point deficit that they had to stare down coming out of halftime.
Even with Montana State’s attempts to dent USC’s lead with several 7-0 runs, each one propelled the Trojans to a streak of unanswered baskets. The Trojans missed seven of nine 3-point attempts but remained solid from two-point range, shooting 59%.
Junior guard Desmond Claude contributed 15 second-half points, further proving his strength in closing out games. The Xavier transfer has been a reliable force in second halves this season, including 14 points to help close out Grambling State 80-69 on November 24.
“We rely on his one-on-one ability,” Musselman said. “He’s hardly missing a shot in the last two games, and he’s not forcing things… He’s become a really, really hard player to defend.”
Claude leads the team in points per game with 14 and finished off the Bobcats with 19 points, six rebounds and three assists.
The Trojans close out non-conference play this week at Galen Center with a CSUN matchup on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Southern next Sunday at 1 p.m.