The USC Trojans (8-5, 16-9 overall) defeated the Washington Huskies (7-7, 17-9) Thursday night, 67-64, at Hec Ed.
The Least You Should Know:
This one looked to be headed for a blowout when USC built a 16-point lead with 9:05 remaining in the game, but the Huskies went into a full-court press and fought back, getting as close as a single point before falling in the game’s final moments after two clutch shots by USC guard Mike Gerrity.
Dwight Lewis owned the Huskies in the first half, scoring 16 of his 22 in the opening 20 minutes.
Other than Quincy Pondexter (18 points, seven rebounds), Matthew Bryan-Amaning was the Huskies’ best player tonight, finishing with 14 points and seven rebounds.
Analysis and observations:
Ugh. Tough, tough loss for the Dawgs who fall back to the middle of the Pac-10. There’s little doubt now that the Huskies must win the Pac-10 Tournament in order to make the NCAA Tournament.
After seeing the out-of-town scores, it turns out that this was an even more costly loss for the Huskies because of what they could’ve gained by winning. With Cal losing at Oregon State, the Huskies would’ve closed within a game of first place with a victory tonight.
The full-court press was the key decision Coach Romar made that helped the Huskies avoid a blowout loss. I can’t help but wonder whether the Huskies should’ve been playing more full-court pressure all season. By this point, the tactic would’ve been old hat, as opposed to something the Dawgs have only practiced on rare game-time occasions.
It felt like every time the Trojans needed a basket they were able to grab offensive rebounds and create two- and three-shot possessions, eventually getting the bucket they needed. The Dawgs were simply overmatched in the paint.
It’s easy to second-guess after a heartbreaking loss. But in a game the Huskies were trailing for the entire second half, why didn’t the coaches ensure we’d fouled USC into the bonus before the game’s final moments? The Dawgs wasted at least 2-3 seconds chasing USC on two intentional non-shooting fouls. In a game this close, I would’ve loved to have that time back.
Another very good game from Matthew Bryan-Amaning, who finished with 14 points, seven rebounds, and looks more confident and aggressive. Even if time is running out on the Dawgs’ 2009/2010 season, MBA’s play is a great sign for 2010/2011.
Some uncharacteristic play from a few Huskies tonight, both good and bad. Good: Abdul Gaddy (six points, 3-9 shooting) looked more aggressive offensively. Nice to see him play with confidence late in an up-and-down freshman year. Bad: A career-high five turnover night for Justin Holiday.
If there’s a bright side, or an understandable side, to tonight’s loss, it’s that the Trojans may be the most dangerous team in the conference. Take your Cal and your ASU, but if USC could go to a post-season tournament, my money would be on them over any of this year’s other Pac-10 squads.
Isaiah Thomas spent crunchtime planted on the bench, and finished with only five points. With Venoy Overton’s on-ball skills necessary to guard point guard Mike Gerrity, there simply wasn’t a place for I.T. and, result aside, the Husky comeback says to me that Romar was right to have Elston Turner in there during that key stretch.
Saturday’s game against UCLA is the last home game of the year, and Quincy Pondexter’s last game ever at Hec Ed. Unless…
The Huskies, now firmly outside the NCAA bubble, could wind up in the CBI Tournament, which might mean one or more games at Hec Ed. That’s obviously not the outcome anyone wants from this season, but it happened two years ago when the Huskies lost to Valpo at Hec Ed in the first-ever CBI. Just something to keep in mind during the season’s last three weeks.
Thanks for coming!
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It was good to see the team almost come back, but now it is official the only way we go dancing is to win the pac-10 tourney.
It was frustrating to watch USC just gobble up the offensive glass. They were just too tall and strong for us.
MBA was a beast tonight, one of the best games I’ve seen him play. He was great on the defensive end and was aggressive and physical on the offensive side. I would have liked to see a few more dunks and not so many 3 to 4 foot shots, but they were all going in tonight. If only we had another decent big.
Gaddy needs to work on being more agressive with his scoring. When he was making shots it was great, it made me realize how limited we are offensively QPON is the only one that is real shooter out there. IT and Overton for the most part just slash their way through the paint.
Here is the thing I didn’t understand. Why did we allow Gerrity to stand 10 feet behind the top of the key and burn of 25+ seconds a possesion. That was so frustrating. With an up tempo team you only start fouling in the last 1 or 2 minutes, but with the way USC was dragging out every possession and getting so many offensive rebounds we needed to start fouling at 6:00 minutes or so left in the game. Full court press and try for the turnover but as soon as the cross half-court let Suggs/Turner/Trent (anyone with fouls to give) attempt a hard steal. Maybe we get 1 or 2 steals, or maybe they miss a few FGs (gerrity is only a 71% FT shooter which is really low for a pg) even if they don’t it eliminates the 3 pointers and gives us a lot more scoring opportunities. -
Turner, Suggs and Holiday are just too hesitant and unreliable on offense. The defense just lays off whenever these guys get the ball and just challenges them to do something offensively.. Unless they can prove they are a consistent threat on offense, we will be playing a man (or more) down.
We’ve talked about it all season, this team’s main flaw is the lack of a reliable third offensive weapon. This team will struggle even more next season without QPon. Even IT has been solved now since teams took away the driving lane, he’s totally disappeared offensively.
Coach Ro needs to revamp this offense during the off season.
NIT here we come?..or CBI??..ugggh..its 2006-7 all over again, so much promise but nothing but heartache..
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I hate to keep saying the same thing, but I thought Venoy’s defense on Gerrity was awful all game. He penetrated on nearly every trip down the floor. He waited and waited and then just blew by Venoy again and again. “Showtime” defense is really not the answer…
Three times during this game, Venoy kept Gerrity in front of him and backed off a few feet. 1 of those three times, he hit a long jumper, the other two he missed. What did we learn from this? Well, in this case, keeping your man in front of you gives him about a 33% chance of scoring. Allowing him past you for the 10% chance at a steal gives him about a 75% chance of scoring, depending on how fast the help D closes.
Maybe MM is right, and we should have been pressing more…I don’t know, but I think what we really should have been doing was staying between these mediocre shooters and the basket. We didn’t force them to make shots, and rebound the ball. We dove around the court frantically, grabbing some turnovers, but also giving away layups. When you play frantic defense (instead of fundamental defense), you are not in position to rebound. It seemed that every time USC did miss a shot, there were 3 maroon jerseys under the basket, one undersized Husky banging heads with one of them, and one other Husky on the floor. Only in the closing minutes, did this frantic strategy pay off because the press caught USC off guard. (Momentarily, though. Eventually, they adjusted, and in truth, it wouldn’t have worked for the entire game because we would have ran out of gas and they were already figuring it out after just a few minutes.)
We got back into this one with the same gimmick that has cost us our season.
I hope that Romar focuses on defensive fundamentals next season. Maybe he should watch some tape of John Brockman. How many times did you see a rebound land in the hands of the opposing team with Brockman on the floor after diving for a steal? Please.
The game needs to be played the right way. There are no shortcuts. Extra effort, press defense, steals, and over the top intensity for stretches of the game is not the answer. Defensive fundamentals is….
Yes, we force a lot of turnovers. But I’d like to see a team defense that forces bad shots and rebound. That’s how you win.
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