University of Southern California Review

Final Score UW-73 USC-67

Wow...what a game. In a game where it looked as though the Huskies would struggle once more on the road they got it done. Despite the refs, despite the turnovers, they pulled out the win. Sure it took overtime. Sure UW was down 12 to start the game, but Terrence Ross wanted nothing to do with that. Along side MBA and Holiday, Ross got this game back and put us ahead. Venoy and Holiday put it away. MBA played a tough, tough game inside, scoring 18 and grabbing 8 boards. Foul trouble plagued the Huskies all game long and three players fouled out: Aziz N'Diaye, Terrence Ross, and Darnell Gant. MBA finished with 3 fouls, Holiday with 4, IT with 4, and Venoy had 1. At the end of regulation time, Nikola Vucevic had as many free throw attempts (14) as our entire team and the foul differential was 11 to 4.

USC started off strong leading 16-4 before UW mounted a come back led by Terrence Ross who hit back to back three point shots to get the game within 1 at 19-18. Ross gave UW its largest lead at 51-46 with a nice three with a hand in his face.

The game went to 55-55 at the end of regulation. UW had the ball with 39 seconds left. IT ran the clock down and took a shot with 7 to go which missed. USC rebounded, but Overton stole the ball at midcourt and put up a shot that was on line, but hit off the front rim. Overtime loomed ominous with the Husky foul situation. Aziz had already fouled out of the game with MBA and Gant close behind. The fouls were so bad that Brendan Sherrer was at the scorers table with 90 seconds left in the first half after MBA had picked up his second foul. If play had stopped during those final 90 seconds, he would have entered the game. In overtime Ross fouled out with 2:37 to go and Gant fouled out with 6 seconds left on a dumb foul. Gant also started the second half in place of Aziz.

Justin Holiday had a HUGE block with 19 seconds to go that allowed the Huskies to keep their 4 point lead and led to Gaddy getting to the line to extend the lead to 71-64. Overton sank two final free throws to put it away 73-67.

Vucevic was the destructive force everyone expected him to be and more. He hit a career high 28 points on 6-9 shooting from the field, including two three pointers, and a perfect 14-14 from the free throw line. He also snatched up 14 rebounds, 11 defensive.

Speaking of rebounding, UW won the battle of the boards 44 to 28. MBA led the team with 8 boards. Aziz had 6 boards, 4 offensive, in only 14 minutes. Justin Holiday and Venoy Overton also grabbed 6 a piece.

Offensively, the Huskies were extremely sloppy. They had only 7 assists and a crushing 17 turnovers. Thankfully UW utilized a zone defense which proved very effective and allowed USC's terrible perimeter shooting to keep the game reasonable.

Shooting proved to be tough early on as the Huskies finished with 40% from the field and 36.8% from range. Ross went 4 for 8 and was the best shooter on the team tonight. Holiday went 2 for 4 from range and hit the ones that really mattered. MBA went 6 for 11 from the field and 6-9 from the free throw line. He missed one near the end of regulation that very well could have proven to be the game winner, but in the end the Huskies got the W and MBA played a solid game so I won't dally on things I cannot change. On a night went solid outside shooting was needed, C.J. Wilcox was out with a staph infection in his hip and looks unlikely to play against UCLA, but Terrence Ross stepped in to show what kind of player he is. You can bet that his performance earned him some game time minutes. against UCLA. Suggs was held scoreless in his 9 minutes. Gant and Aziz were also held scoreless. Abdul only managed 4 points in 19 minutes and 0 assists.

IT led the team with 3 assist, but also had a commanding lead in the turnover category with 6. Ross, Suggs, Overton, and Holiday each had 1 assist. Ross had 2 steals and IT managed 1 as well.

Overton went 9 of 13 from the line, IT hit 4 of 5, and Holiday was 2 for 2.

What Was Good

Rebounding

MBA and Aziz, while he was in, were terrific down low getting the boards. Sure Vucevic managed 14 and Stephenson got 8, but the rest of the team was able to box out their man and get the boards themselves. Winning the rebounding battle 44-28 against a tall and tough USC team is a great sign of progress. Darnell Gant was fairly ineffective the whole game, scoring no points and grabbing no rebounds. His only stats came from fouls, 5, and his lone assist. Scott Suggs only managed one. Other than those two, every other Husky grabbed 4 or more rebounds. Fantastic effort tonight by the team.

Terrence Ross

I'll say more on him later in the player by player review, but he needs to be noted here. This kid was an absolute BEAST tonight. Without him this game would have been lost early on. 7-13 shooting for 18 points, 4-8 from range, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist, and 2 turnovers. Great, great night for him. It was, hopefully, a breakout performance. If he keeps playing like that in conference play he will see major minutes come February and March.

Toughness

This isn't something you can quantify statistically, but the Dawgs had a lot of it tonight. In a physical game where UW was getting called for everything and USC was getting away with obvious fouls, the Huskies played tough, adapted, and battled through the refs to win the game. Playing against 5 is hard enough, 8 is near impossible. Add in our poor ball handling and you have yourself a nightmare. IT was getting picked left and right by Marcus Simmons, the 6-6 200lb G, whose size and strength was for the most part too much to handle for IT. Still, IT fought through and managed 10 points in the end. With Abdul playing even less effectively than IT, Thomas and Overton were given the reigns and they did a pretty good job of getting things going in the Dawgs favor.

Despite being down 12, the Huskies still managed to get the lead at the end of half, keeping their record a perfect 12-0 at halftime.

So despite all their short comings and the tough officiating, the Huskies kicked and punched their way through to the end and showed the grit they have been lacking thus far in the season. They showed they could win a tough game and on the road at that. Give props to Romar for getting his team ready for these battles.

Free Throw Shooting

While they were far from perfect, they did well in overtime when we needed it most. 2-3 in the first half, 7-11 in the second, and 13-17 in overtime. Overton was slightly below his normal shooting percentage at 9-13, but he did well in crunch time. MBA was better than usual at 6-9, though his was one make away from a really solid FT shooting night.

What Was Bad

Fouling

Whether it was us or the officials, our team struggled tonight with fouling. Going into half MBA had 2 fouls, Aziz had 3, and Holiday had 3. Gant may even have had 3, I don't remember.  It was rough goings for the Huskies, especially the bigs who continually picked up fouls on rebounding. Our guards, mainly IT, were called for charges and momentum kept creeping away every time we picked up a foul. If not for USC's need to foul in OT the FT differential would have been huge. USC finished with 32 attempts to UW's 31. As I said in some other articles, fouling has been a problem for us. We are averaging 21 per game. Normally this is not a big deal as our guards pick up a few fouls, but today it was all on our bigs would just couldn't get the refs to leave them alone. UW will ace another tough challenge against UCLA on Friday. UCLA has a strong frontcourt with a little more depth than USC, though perhaps not as talented overall. MBA did a good job ending the game and maintaining his 3 fouls.

Ball Handling

Ball handling was terrible tonight. USC forced 17 turnovers and had 9 steals. IT had 6 turnovers alone and couldn't get things going his way. It seemed like every time we had things starting to head our way we would get an off the ball foul, a charge, or some sort of travel/steal/turnover. I don't know what was happening (thanks FSN....), but from what I heard, it was just sloppy offense and great defense by USC. Not sure if Romar made the right choice keeping IT in for so much of the game with as many turnovers as he had, but he must have been playing good defense to merit his time. That and the fact that Gaddy was ineffective as well meant IT's leadership was valuable and possibly why he stayed on the court.

Not sure where to put our defense. We only forced 10 turnovers and had 27 fouls against us, but the zone we threw at USC forced them to shoot from range and they failed miserably at it. USC went 5 for 21 from range. To me this looks like we were an effective defensive team despite our short comings. Holiday came through with a critical, game securing block with 19 seconds to go. A huge play to make especially with 4 fouls.

Player by Player Review

 Venoy Overton

His first half was not his best performance, but his second half and overtime performances were excellent. He hit free throws, drove the lane on occasion, and created some opportunities. He made a nice steal at the end of regulation to give the Huskies at shot at a last second win, but it rimmed off the front. Nice performance tonight getting 11 points and 6 boards and only 1 foul. On a night when fouls were being handed out like candy on Halloween, the normally foul prone guard did a great job avoiding them and adding to the deficit.
Grade: B+

Justin Holiday

Holiday was forced to play a mismatch against Stephenson in the post at times and it hurt us, but overall Holiday played a very solid game. Even with four fouls he managed to be a game changer. He scored 12 points including a huge three pointer to start off the overtime period. He snatched up 6 boards, 4 defensive and had two blocks on the night. Without video coverage it's hard for me to really judge how well all the players fared.
Grade: B+

Matthew Bryan-Amaning

Well he sure stepped up his game today. 18 points and 8 boards. Fantastic performance offensively for MBA. From the fans that attended the game in person it sounds as though he still struggled to hit some of the bunny shots, a problem that has persisted this season and throughout his career. Defensive performance is even harder to judge. Vucevic had 28 points and tended to be MBA's assignment, but playing a zone defense most of the game makes Vucevic not entirely his responsibility alone. The fact he was able to score and rebound against tough post players is a huge improvement over earlier this season and he was most effective when Aziz was in the game. Expect to see them remain in the starting line up together despite the foul trouble we had tonight. The Dawgs showed they could battle through the foul trouble and get it done regardless.
Grade: A-


Brendan Sherrer


Did not play, but also did in the final 90 seconds of the game when MBA picked up his second foul and Aziz was already sitting with 3. Would have been a huge moment as he has never played in a non blowout game let alone the first half. I guess Romar was serious when he said Sherrer could see real game minutes and I was right about when. Foul trouble situations for our bigs.
Grade: N/A


Scott Suggs


Only 9 minutes tonight. Missed both shot attempts. Not much else to say about him tonight. Ross was hot so Romar left him in. Unfortunate as Suggs has been a big contributor the last two games.
Grade: C

Darnell Gant

Like Suggs, Gant was ineffective on offense tonight. On defense he was solid, especially in OT minus the stupid 5th foul with 5-6 seconds left in the game. He still did not manage to rebound a single ball in 22 minutes of play. At 6'8'' that is unacceptable. Even 6-0 Overton managed 6 and 5-8 IT grabbed 4. After grabbing 4 offensive boards in 14 minutes against UNR I was hopeful he had turned the corner, but this game indicates otherwise. Not sure why he can't rebound, but it isn't a part of his game yet, though it seriously needs to be.
Grade: C+ for his defense and size we needed

Isaiah Thomas

Marcus Simmons shut him down pretty well. IT still managed 10 points. His 6 turnovers were generally due to forcing too much on the inside against USC's long bodies. Can't blame him for trying to create opportunities on a night when we lacked a lot of offensive punch. He hit his free throws. He rebounded well. His defense was pretty good.
Grade: B

Abdul Gaddy

Another sub par performance tonight. He did tie a career high with 5 rebounds, but had 0 assists and only 4 points. He sat a large chunk of the game, playing only 19 minutes. I don't know what his game looked like and why he struggled. It sounds as though he hid behind the ball and despite taking the shots he normally excels at he missed.
Grade: C

Aziz N'Diaye

No points tonight for the big man, but he did manage an impressive 6 rebounds, 4 offensive, in 14 minutes. One of his offensive boards was huge as it gave UW a third chance at the basket and led to the Huskies going to the free throw line. Fouls eliminated him from the game and it looks as though the tough post presence of Stephenson forced him to pick up silly over the back foul calls. More time will be needed to perfect his rebounding efforts, but so far you have to be impressed. The lack of points is disappointing, but he isn't exactly out there to be a big scoring option. Still, it would be nice to see him put up 6 or 8 a night. It's a long season so don't fret now about his offensive woes. The fact that he rebounds so well is the best part about him.
Grade: B- for foul problems

Antoine Hosley

Did not play.
Grade: N/A


C.J. Wilcox

Sat out tonight with a Staph infection in his hip. He is unlikely to be healthy enough to play against UCLA on Friday. Hope he gets well soon, we missed his shooting tonight, though Ross did an excellent job filling in and playing big.
Grade: N/A

Terrence Ross

MVP of the game no doubt. His back to back threes got us within 1. His third put us up 28-26 at the end of the half. His fourth gave us our largest lead at 51-46. He had a few drives into the middle for great lay-ins and hook shots. He picked up 4 boards, had 2 steals, an assist, and 2 turnovers. He fouled out with 2:37 to go in OT. This was a slightly scary moment for the Huskies as he had been our main offensive weapon and most consistent and dangerous shooter. A huge, breakout night and performance from the freshman. 18 points in his Pac-10 opener, not many freshman can say they have done that, let alone have those 18 points be such high impact points. Without Ross, tonight would have been another blowout loss on the road. Didn't see what he did defensively minus the steals so I'm not sure how he did on that end of the court.
Grade: A

Final Thoughts

A tough win with the grit and drive Husky fans have been clamoring for. A huge win and statement maker to open Pac-10 play. This win should give our team a lot of confidence heading into Friday's game against UCLA. They have proven to not only themselves, but us, and the media they can win tough games and road games, oh and tough road games. Man, my heart took a beating from this game. I honestly don't know out of this game, the Pac-10 Tournament Championship game, and the Marquette game which was the most stressful. Maybe this one because it was either going to show we are overrated again and can't play up to our promise or it would show we have what it takes to win big. Picking up a win in UCLA would likely put the Huskies back in the rankings. Nice job tonight Huskies, way to get it done the hard way.