USC falls in final home stand of season
The Trojans faltered on Senior Day as they dropped their 10th consecutive game of the season to Oregon at the Galen Center on Saturday, 78-63.
Duck hunter · Senior guard Pe’Shon Howard led the Trojans with 20 points — 16 of which came in the first half — against Oregon. Howard entered his final home game at USC averaging 10.9 points per game. – Jojo Korsh | Daily Trojan
It was the last game that USC (10-19, 1-15 Pac-12) would play in front of its home crowd this season, as the team goes back on the road next weekend to finish off regular season conference play before traveling to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 tournament.
For the Trojans’ five seniors, Pe’Shon Howard, D.J. Haley, Omar Oraby, Daniel Munoz and J.T. Terrell, it was the last game they would ever play at the Galen Center.
These seniors would combine for 41 of the Trojans’ 63 total points while junior guard Byron Wesley tacked on 12 points for USC in the losing effort.
“[The seniors] played really good basketball and we saw that in the score, back and forth for 30 minutes,” said USC head coach Andy Enfield.
Howard, who transferred to USC from Maryland this season, led USC with 20 points, three short of his career-high 23, in his final game at home.
“Pe’Shon is really such a great player and he came out here and he really played his heart out,” Oregon forward Mike Moser said.
Oregon (20-8, 8-8) once again was too much to handle for the Trojans, however, who lost their eighth straight to the Ducks.
In addition to reaching the 20th victory plateau for the fourth straight year, Oregon also picked up its fifth consecutive victory on a rainy day that resembled the type of weather the Ducks are used to playing in back home.
The Trojans stuck around for most of the game, as the two teams went into halftime tied at 36.
At halftime, the 1954 USC Final Four team was recognized by Athletic Director Pat Haden for being the only USC team to ever reach the Final Four. But the good vibes from halftime did not carry over into second half.
The last time the two teams played in Eugene, Ore., the Trojans led the Ducks by four at the half before Oregon pulled away to prevail 78-66.
Saturday’s game would follow a similar script as the Trojans trailed 61-60 with 9:21 to play, but the game slipped away in the final nine minutes, when Oregon outscored them 17-3 to pull away.
“I was really trying to get guys going in the second half toward the end, being aggressive,” Howard said.
But the Trojans just couldn’t keep up with the Ducks, turning the ball over 12 times in total compared to Oregon’s 10 and racking up 26 team fouls to Oregon’s 18.
“I thought we were playing excellent team basketball,” Enfield said. “We were making the right plays, we were making shots, and then we turned the ball over four or five teams during that crucial stretch.”
Moser was a force to be reckoned with for the Ducks in their scoring attack and on the boards, posting a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds to lead all players.
Oregon had three other players reach the double-figure mark with Joseph Young tallying 16 points and Jason Calliste and Elgin Cook adding 13 and 12 points, respectively, off the bench.
It has been a tough season for the Trojans, who went winless in the month of February and won only one game in January, against a respectable Cal team.
“If you would have asked us before the season, we would have expected to win more games,” Enfield said. “But, at the same time, we have played some good basketball teams, but they deserve credit as well.”
The ending to the 2013-2014 season resembles that of the 2011-2012 season, when the Trojans dropped 10 in a row to finish the season under former head coach Kevin O’Neill.
Unless they can pull off a win against Washington State next weekend, the Trojans will finish the regular season at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings.
“Besides our first five games, we’ve competed every game,” Howard said. “We go into every game looking to win.”
Though the team was selected to finish 11th in the preseason conference polls, few people thought that USC would end up with only one or two Pac-12 wins under Enfield in his first season as head coach.
The Trojans will try to stay out of the basement as they travel north to take on the Washington State Cougars and the Washington Huskies on March 6 and 8.