Los Angeles, CA – USC Trojans men’s basketball team hosted the Idaho Vandals at the Galen Center. The Trojans managed to pull off a win over the Idaho Vandals 74 – 55, sending Idaho back to their bone chilling cold with nothing more then a hot potato souvenirs that read “The Trojans came, they saw and they smashed us.”
In spite of the Trojans sluggish start, they were able to put up some solid numbers. There were four players in double digits (Bennie Boatwright at 17, Nikola Jovanovic at 11 points, Julian Jacobs at 11 points and Katin Reinhart at 17 points). They were also shooting three point shots at a rate of 42.9%. In addition to that about 60% of their scored points were made in the 2nd half of the game. This speaks volumes about the conversation Head Coach Andy Enfield had with them at the half.
Idaho had good intentions. They set the tempo of the game in the 1st half. They had 21 rebounds. At one point they had an 8 point lead over USC. The reason the Vandals went home with a loss was purely do to them being a young team, errors like…several shot clock violations, traveling calls and bad passes. They really had no answer for the Trojan gear change that they made coming out of the half time.
Now we were all surprise to see USC’s Jordan McLaughlin throwing caution to the wind giving it his all out on the court after breaking his nose in the game against Xavier on November 27th. He is on his second face mask in his quest to find one that won’t distort his depth perception and peripheral vision.
The Trojans will have the next 6 days off the hit books for finals, make face mask tweaks, rest and reflect on how their efforts have them having one of the best season starts since 2006-07 seasons.
