While the Washington State Cougars were able to battle and keep things close, they just didn’t quite do enough to steal a win in Los Angeles, falling to the USC Trojans 68-61. It’s the Cougars’ fifth straight loss.
WSU (3-8) overcame some early offensive struggles to keep things tight in the second half but ultimately just didn’t have enough to keep pace down the stretch with USC (10-1).
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Freshman Ace Glass was not in the starting lineup for WSU for the first time since scoring 26 off the bench against Chaminade. He ended up only scoring three points on seven attempts from the field in 23 minutes off the bench.
Neither team could find much of a rhythm offensively to begin the game until USC went on a 15-0 run about midway through the first half. It looked like that would be the catalyst for a Trojan blowout win. WSU wasn’t doing much on the offensive end to inspire confidence in a comeback with a slew of turnovers—11 total in the first half—and wasn’t shooting efficiently enough to make up for the possessions ending in turnovers.
Emmanuel Ugbo ended the run with a three-pointer, which also snapped a run of eight straight missed three-point attempts. USC quickly rebuilt the lead up to a game-high 16 points, but the Trojan offense finished the half ice cold, missing their last six field goal attempts. The Cougars took advantage of USC’s inability to shoot, closing the half on a 9-0 run to head to the locker room down seven.
Eemeli Yalaho extended the run with a jumper out of the halftime break to make it 11 straight points. The Trojans ended the run with a free throw from Ezra Ausar, but the Cougars continued to keep chipping into the lead with a layup from Jerone Morton and a trey from Rihards Vavers to make it a one-point game. Every time USC tried to put together a run to pull away, WSU answered, never letting the Trojans build a lead back into double digits for the majority of the second half.
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With 1:23 remaining, the Cougars forced a turnover, and Vavers whipped the ball to a streaking Adria Rodriguez, who saw an open lane for a layup attempt. Rodriguez went up with the right hand, but Chad Baker-Mazara came flying in from behind to pin the layup off the backboard for a huge block. The Trojans cashed their 23rd and 24th free throws of the game on the opposite end to ice it.
The Cougars put together an impressive second half, only turning the ball over twice, scoring 1.094 points per possession, and limiting a sharpshooting Trojan offense to 1-7 from beyond the arc. The biggest difference came at the free throw line, where the Trojans scored nearly 40% of their points (27). Vavers led WSU in scoring with 13 points.
While it was one of the better games WSU has put together against a quality opponent, it still ended in an all too familiar loss. WSU will wrap up non-conference play this week with a neutral-site game against Eastern Washington in Spokane on Wednesday and a home game vs. Mercer on Saturday.
