LOS ANGELES — "Let's Go Boilers, Let's Go Boilers" echoed across every hall of the Galen Center throughout the entire duration of USC's back and forth battle between the No.
LOS ANGELES — "Let's Go Boilers, Let's Go Boilers" echoed across every hall of the Galen Center throughout the entire duration of USC's back and forth battle between the No.5 ranked Boilermakers Saturday evening, with the outcome coming within the last seconds. This game resembled that of which two teams was going to make the crucial mistake first, and unfortunately, it was the Trojans poor shooting from the free throw line succumbed to the Boilermakers, falling late by a final 69-64 score.
On paper, it looked as though the Trojans were doing everything right against the eventual 17-1 team.
USC out-rebounded Purdue 40-32 and held one of the most efficient shooting programs in college basketball to just 42% from the floor, so, what wrong? Well, according to USC Head Coach, they need to make their foul shots when they enter the line and they're running out of players on the floor.
"We just battled our butts off and had the chance to beat the No.5 team in the country with a really limited roster," Musselman said. "I can't fix our shooting; Rodney Rice was supposed to be our top shooter and he's not playing, so I would love to see Purdue without Braden Smith and see how good their shooting is or without Fletcher Loyer or how about both of them on not the floor. All we could do is get our guys to play as hard as we possibly can, which I think they did."
The Trojans caught fire offensively early in the first half, going on a 16-0 run that pushed Southern California's lead over the Boilermakers to a 22-8 deficit. The likes of Chad Baker-Mazara's 8 points and Gabe Dynes 8 points in the paint spearheaded the Trojans explosive offensive output.
Coming out of the second media timeout, the Boilermakers began to pick up some steam, with the early candidate for Big Ten Player of the Year, Braden Smith, leading Purdue on a 30-10 run to end the first half and the 38-32. Smith racked up 18 first-half points on 6-9 shooting from the floor, which included hitting four three-pointers from beyond the arc.
USC made the adjustment at the half to stop Smith's scoring output, which they were successful in with Smith only managing to score 4 points the entire second half. At the same time, big man Oscar Cluff took over in the post by leading the Boilermakers with 13 second-half points.
Trojans had a 60-57 lead with the final three minutes ticking from the game clock, but Cluff's post takeover flipped the score in Purdue's favor in a matter of minutes as the Boilermakers had a 63-64 lead with 1:19 left in regulation. Ezra Ausar scored a late dunk with 15 seconds left and the Trojans were down by one until Smith's and Loyer's late free throw attempts sealed the deal for Purdue.
Category: General Sports
