Turnovers cost Trojans in season opener


USC’s men’s basketball team opened its season with a 76-68 loss to Portland State on Saturday. The Trojans committed 23 turnovers in the game, 22 of which were lost by the starting five. The Trojans only forced four turnovers from Portland State, who capitalized off of the Trojans’ mistakes.

Flash of greatness · Freshman guard Jordan McLaughlin scored a team-high 19 points in his first game as a Trojan, but he also cost the team seven turnovers in his 33 minutes of play on Saturday night. - Kenneth Rodriguez-Clisham | Daily Trojan

Flash of greatness · Freshman guard Jordan McLaughlin scored a team-high 19 points in his first game as a Trojan, but he also cost the team seven turnovers in his 33 minutes of play on Saturday night. – Kenneth Rodriguez-Clisham | Daily Trojan

 

Despite a significant  discrepancy in turnovers, the new members of the team shined for the Trojans and provided a glimpse of what is to come for this young team. Freshman point guard Jordan McLaughlin led the team with 19 points and six assists in his debut, but he also had seven turnovers. He showed off his ability to get to the hoop and seemed to develop good chemistry with his big men, constantly feeding them the ball down low.

McLaughlin was consistently the Trojans’ best player on the court, but he sat out key moments in the second half. Second-year head coach Andy Enfield noted that the point guard still played for most of the game and he was just monitoring his workload.

“When you play 33 minutes, it’s not like I took him out, but he gets tired like everyone else. We make the judgement of when he needs a blow,” Enfield said. “Of course we want him in the game, he does a lot of great things but he’s got to learn that he’s got to cut the turnovers way down but we’re proud of him. He’s a freshman [in his] first game, he’ll get better.”

Two other Trojans finished the game with double digits: freshman forward Malik Martin added 10 points and redshirt sophomore guard Katin Reinhardt scored 11 in their Trojan debuts.

Portland State was led by senior forward Tiegbe Bamba who scored 19 points and sophomore forward Braxton Tucker who added 16. The Vikings had five players score in double digits, including senior guard Tim Douglas who scored 14 and shot 4-6 from behind the arc.

The Vikings were stingy on defense, stealing the ball 10 times, and shot well from behind the arc at 44.4 percent. USC was only able to force four turnovers and only shot 33.3 percent from three, both factors proving to be the difference in the game.

USC led briefly in the first half after an 11-3 run put them up 23-22, but Portland State led for most of the game and went into the half up 39-32 after a 17-9 burst to end the first half. The Trojans were able to take a lead in the second half after a bucket from redshirt sophomore forward Darion Clark put them ahead 48-47, but the team never saw a lead the rest of the game.

The Trojans fought all through the second half and cut the deficit to one after a jumper from Reinhardt at 7:16, but then the Vikings went on a 10-0 run and never looked back.

Enfield started with a loss for his second straight season, and cited turnovers as the main reason for his team’s inability to beat a Vikings squad that went 17-15 last year, and 11-9 in Big Sky play.

“You’re not going to beat any team with 23 turnovers and you look and our starters had 22 of the 23,” Enfield said. “It’s not our bench coming in and turning it over. It was our players who we thought were our starting lineup, and they have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball.”

The Trojans were able to outshoot their opponent from the field, 53.2 percent to 39.1 percent, and outrebounded Portland State 43-25, but the turnovers kept them from winning the game.

Joining McLaughlin, Reinhardt and Martin in the starting lineup were returning sophomores, guard Julian Jacobs and forward Nikola Jovanovic. Jacobs only scored four points but added six rebounds, and Jovanovic scored six with seven boards, but also had six turnovers.

The bench was led by Clark, who scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds. Junior forward Strahinja Gavrilovic and freshman guard Elijah Stewart each added five points in the reserve role.

The Trojans will look to rebound from their loss in their second game on Monday against Tennessee Tech, a team that opened their season with an 83-29 beatdown of Piedmont International. In that game, junior center Dwan Caldwell and freshman forward Mason Ramsey led the Golden Eagles with 14 points. This will be the first meeting between the two teams. Tennessee Tech, much like USC, has a plethora of new faces, as they welcome in two transfer students and four freshmen. Tennessee Tech is led by head coach Steve Payne.

“We have to watch film and go easy on the legs and prepare for Monday night,” Enfield said. “Tennessee Tech’s a very good, experienced team; a lot like Portland State.”

Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. at the Galen Center.