Trojans seek vengeance in rematch vs. Stanford


The USC men’s basketball team will welcome the Stanford Cardinal to the Galen Center Wednesday night riding a four-game winning streak and a second-best 6-2 Pac-12 record. Stanford will come into their Los Angeles road trip having beaten both UCLA and USC earlier this season and with the third-best record in the Pac-12 at 5-2.

Sophomore forward Nick Rakocevic’s aggressive play style has earned him 95 total rebounds in the 2017-18 season. George Lydakis | Daily Trojan

Head coach Andy Enfield believes that the Pac-12 is as good as it has been, but that the Trojans and their defense should be prepared for Wednesday night’s game.

“[Redshirt junior forward] Reid Travis is an all-conference type of player, we have to limit him with his isolations and keeping him off of the offensive glass,” Enfield said. “To give us a chance to win it all starts with creating turnovers and making sure to keep the ball safe. We’re ready to go, but this league is really challenging this year. Every team can beat each other on any given night and on Wednesday night we see a Stanford team that gave us our last loss.”

Stanford’s previous win over USC earlier this month came off of a half-court buzzer-beater from freshman guard Daejon Davis that nullified a last-second layup from Trojans’ senior guard Jordan McLaughlin with 1.7 seconds left. In that match, the team came back from being down 13-4 in the first half to finish it on a 43-23 run. The second half, however, belonged to the Cardinal. While junior forward Chimezie Metu and sophomore forward Nick Rakocevic combined for 11-of-13 from the field for 22 points, the rest of the Trojans scored just seven second half points off of 2-of-17 shooting.

In response, Travis exploded for 18 points as Stanford put up 41 points, hitting 15-of-19 from within 2-point range. After going up 62-51 with 14:03 left in the second half, the Trojans scored just 14 points in the final 14 minutes, while allowing the Cardinal to put up 26 and win the game in the final moments. Just like Stanford, USC’s forwards were the highlight of the game. Led by Metu’s team-high 20 points, three blocks, three assists and five rebounds, fellow forward junior Bennie Boatwright and Rakocevic combined for 13-24 shooting from the field, 18 rebounds and 30 of USC’s 76 points.

For Rakocevic, this game is not an opportunity for revenge, but rather a chance for USC to show that they are much better than what they showed up in Palo Alto. “We’re coming after them especially because we all thought we had that first game,” Rakocevic said. “That buzzer beater obviously hurt, but I feel like we let that game go, this time that’s not going to happen. It’s all about depth, because sometimes guys are going to have off nights..”

Other than McLaughlin’s modest 16 points, seven assists and four steals on 50 percent shooting, the Trojans’ guards failed to show up in Troy’s first showdown with the Cardinal. Guards sophomore Jonah Mathews, senior Elijah Stewart, freshman Jordan Usher, redshirt junior Shaqquan Aaron and redshirt sophomore Derryck Thornton combined to hit just 3-of-17 from the field for only 10 points and three assists. Against Oregon State, however, those same guards racked up 40 points and six assists, hitting 12 of 22 shots from the field, including all 10 of USC’s 3-point shots.

“We have a deep team, the starters have the confidence in us so that it’s not a let down when we get it,” Usher said. “When we get in, sometimes the mojo clicks extra for us and we have a special night. Our team has gotten closer throughout the year. We had some adversity at the beginning of the year, but I think we’re really hitting our stride and now we’re becoming a team that everyone thought we should be.”

Although USC may have lost on a 3-pointer, the Trojans actually defended the deep ball better than they had nearly all season.

Besides holding Cal State Fullerton to just 10.5 percent from deep (2-19), the Trojans forced the Cardinal to hit only four of their 21 3-point attempts (19 percent) before Davis hit the game-winner. Much like how USC guards were able to hit their 3-pointers over Oregon State, the Trojans also defended the perimeter well, limiting the Beavers to just 4 of 18 from beyond the arc for a second-best 22.2 percent.

If recent trends continue for the Trojans, USC should be able to hit the 3 offensively and prevent it defensively. For Stanford, their star junior forward Reid Travis has put up four double-doubles in Pac-12 play, including a career-high 29 points and 10 rebounds over USC just a few weeks ago. Even if Travis — who is averaging 20 points and 7.6 rebounds per game — fails to score, the Cardinal has a lethal collection of guards who can score at will.

“We need to make it tougher for everyone on Stanford,” Mathews said. “We let them off too easy last time. Some of their ball screens, they were catching it too easy. We’re playing them at home now so we can’t let them come in here and punk us. ”

In a 79-70 victory over Washington State, Travis mustered a season-low 6 points on 1-6 shooting, while guards senior Dorian Pickens and freshman Daejon Davis combined for 43 points and nine 3-pointers. Although Pickens and fellow senior forward Michael Humphrey lead the supplementary scorers with 13.1 and 11.3 points per game, respectively, freshmen forward KZ Okpala, guard Isaac White, forward Oscar Da Silva and Davis have played meaningful minutes and provided plentiful buckets.

While Davis has started a majority of Stanford’s games, Okpala and Da Silva have both played big roles either as starters or coming off the bench. Davis stuffed the statsheet against ASU with 13 points, three steals, eight assists and five rebounds on 40 percent shooting, a typical night for a freshman who averages 9.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 0.9 steals per game. Despite playing just 18 minutes in a big 86-77 win over Arizona State, Da Silva racked up 14 points, seven rebounds, a block and an assist all on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting from the floor.

White, who comes in relief, leads the team in terms of completed 3-pointers, hitting 33 of his 97 shots from downtown. With such a loaded bench, the Trojans will have to keep up their defensive intensity for 40 minutes, a strategy that Enfield emphasized during practice on Monday.

“What has been most impressive is not just the defensive effort from our bench, but our starters as well,” Enfield said. “Our team defense is much better, it doesn’t matter who we put in the game. We have to do a better job of challenging their buzzer-beaters, but hopefully we are up enough where that won’t matter.”