USC Controls Second Half and Defeats the Washington Huskies
The USC Trojans (16-3) controlled the second half for a 69-54 victory over the Washington Huskies (3-15).
After falling behind 23-27 early in the game, the Trojans dominated the rest of the first half. They closed on a 18-4 run to take a 10-point lead heading into halftime.
The Huskies had no answer for the Trojans in the paint or on the glass. USC won the first half rebounding battle 24 to 9, and out scored them in the paint to 30 to 12.
Everyone was getting involved on the offensive end. Four Trojans had at least seven points with Isaiah Mobley leading the first half charge with a near double-double (9 points, 9 rebounds).
On the other end of the court, USC was locking down everyone not named Quade Green. Green was 7-of-9 from the floor for 14 points, while the rest of his team was only 7-of-22. He was a one-man wrecking crew scoring from every spot on the court.
In the postgame presser, coach Andy Enfield had lofty praise for the junior guard, “When you’re that good offensively, I thought I was watching Damian Lillard for a few minutes. And you know how hard he is to stop. Damian Lillard is very much like Quade Green with that speed, that quickness, his shot-making. Thankfully, in the second half I thought we did a much better job of making it harder on him, using our size and length.”
Green wasn’t the only one struggling with the Trojans length in the second half. He and the rest of the Huskies went ice cold; Cole Bajema was the only player to make more than one field goal.
They tried to battle back and make it a competitive game, but their nine turnovers were too much to overcome. The Huskies couldn’t cut the second half deficit to anything less than nine points.
Not to mention, it's hard to come back when a consensus top-three draft pick is taking over. Evan Mobley started exerting his will on both ends of the floor. He led the Trojans in second half points with 10 and finished the night with 17 overall (team-high) on 8-of-11 shooting from the field.
Despite only making one three-point shot as a team, it was a great offensive night by USC. They made nearly half their total shot attempts (28-of-57) and had four players score in double figures. But ask coach Andy Enfield about the offensive performance, and he will tell you they left points on the board.
“Tonight we ended up shooting 49% from the field with 14 assists, so our numbers weren’t terrible. Actually that’s pretty good. We just didn’t score 80, like we felt we could tonight,” said coach Enfield.
The Trojans will look for their sixth straight win on Saturday, when they take on Washington State (11-8).
FINAL: USC 69 - Washington 54
-----
You may also like:
[Three Things To Know About USC's New Hire From Texas]
[JuJu Smith-Schuster To Las Vegas Raiders?]
-----
Be sure to stay locked into AllTrojans all the time!
Follow Millard Thomas on Twitter: @creatorthomas24
Follow AllTrojans on Twitter:@SI_AllTrojans
Like and follow AllTrojans on Facebook
For more USC news visit www.alltrojans.com.
