March Madness: No. 6 USC Defeats No. 11 Drake
USC’s second half defense absolutely stifles Drake for a 72-56 first round win.
After a tightly contested first half that saw the Trojans only lead by three, they came out of halftime, and put the clamps on the Bulldogs offense. They held Drake to just seven field goals made for a total of 19 second half points.
Specifically, they picked the intensity up on Joseph Yesufu, who torched them for 26 points and six threes. But he only managed eight points coming out of halftime with USC focusing on taking him out of the game. He could have used more help from his supporting cast as no other Bulldogs scored more than six points.
“We just treated Yesufu as their main star player. So everywhere he was, we called him out, and really locked in on him,” Evan Mobley on second half defensive adjustments.
Coming into the matchup, two big keys for USC if they wanted to win were: spreading the ball around, and letting everyone get involved - they were able to do both.
When the Trojans have at least three players score 10 or more points they're 20-0. That is now 21-0 after three Trojans scored at least 14 points today.
Evan Mobley was able to double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. He was terrific defensively - contesting every shot that came into the paint, while picking up three blocks. Isaiah Mobley struggled with foul trouble in the first half, but was still able to pour in 15 points, and Drew Peterson chipped in 14 points as well.
Tahj Eaddy didn’t have a great game scoring the ball, but that didn’t stop him from stuffing the stat sheet. He scored nine points, grabbed six rebounds, and dished out a game-high 10 assists to only one turnover.
Trojans advance to the next round of the NCAA Tournament, and it only gets tougher from here.
They’re scheduled to face the No. 3 seed Kansas on Monday, who is coming off of a 93-84 win over Eastern Washington.
But after not being able to compete in last year’s tournament due to the pandemic, coach Andy Enfield is happy for the opportunity, and is relishing in the moment.
“After a two-year break, this meant a lot to our program, to our team, our players, and coaching staff. No one got to participate last year in this tournament. So it’s extra special right now to be here. It’s also extra special to win a game. It’s hard to get to the NCAA tournament, it's very difficult to win a game in the tournament. So we’ll try our best to win two against a very good team,” coach Enfield’s thoughts on being back in the tournament."
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