This was not the match competition Eric Musselman hoped his workforce could be preventing for come March, his first as USC’s coach. However the season had slid away by way of a irritating February, and now his Trojans have been left tiptoeing alongside the brink of the Huge Ten match cutline, a discomfiting place he by no means anticipated them to be in his debut.
There was no altering all that now. What USC might nonetheless do, with the Huge Ten’s last-place workforce on deck for its closing dwelling sport, was win and all however guarantee it’s in a discipline it ought to have simply made within the first place.
USC wouldn’t have a lot bother with that Wednesday, because it dispatched Washington, 92-61, lastly placing a cease to a irritating five-game shedding streak.
With the win, USC wants only a single Iowa loss — both tomorrow in opposition to Michigan State or Sunday at Nebraska — to safe its place in Indianapolis subsequent week. However because the seemingly fifteenth and closing seed within the match, it’s received a protracted, tough street forward if it hopes to get previous that.
That image didn’t at all times appear so bleak for USC. In the beginning of February, the Trojans took care of Michigan State, the present Huge Ten chief, on its homecourt. They have been 5-5 within the convention then, firmly on the NCAA match bubble.
USC has misplaced seven of eight video games since, three of which got here in opposition to groups within the backside half of the Huge Ten standings. That’s the worst mark of any workforce within the convention over the past month.
However Wednesday felt like a departure from that darkish stretch, in spurts not less than. USC was completely blistering from deep, pulling down 15 of 26 from three-point vary. The 26 makes an attempt have been the second most the Trojans had tried all season.
It was Rashaun Agee who discovered his deep stroke first. Contemporary off his finest sport of the season — a 29-point effort in Oregon — Agee hit three first-half three-pointers. Throughout one stretch, he scored 10 factors in three minutes. He completed with 18.
Desmond Claude, the Trojans main scorer, stepped up after that, disregarding his worst efficiency to attain 25, whereas allotting 11 assists.
Chibuzo Agbo drove the dagger in late, hitting three straight second-half threes to place Washington away for good. He completed with 26, his highest-scoring sport at USC.
