USC skirts by Utah in a double-overtime nailbiter

LAS VEGAS –– The Southern California Trojans, seeded No. 2 in the tournament, started off extremely slowly as they began play against the 7th seed Utah Utes, who were coming off of a big win against the Washington Huskies.

The Utes began gaining momentum after Alfonso Plummer knocked down a close-range jumper and a contested three to put them up 7-4 over the Trojans.

USC picked up its speed after a short timeout, draining a few jumpers to take the lead from Utah. The Utes continued their offensive push, pushing the ball down court and regaining the lead. 

Utah began to let USC slip away with a lead when the Trojans went on a 9-0 run. Sloppy offensive play troubled the Utes as they fell behind by as much as nine.

Play settled after the Trojan’s offensive hot streak and, at half, the Utes had brought the score back within five with USC leading by 34-29 at the buzzer. The Trojans shot an outstanding 52% from the field in the first half but only 25% from three-point range.

With two players already nearing double-digit points going into the second half, the Trojans were heading in a familiar direction, being 18-0 when three players on the team have scored 10 or more points in a game.

USC began pulling away as Utah continually fouled players inside the paint, putting the Trojans on the free-throw line for easy buckets. However, the Trojans entered into a scoring drought that lasted for nearly three minutes until freshman forward Evan Mobley hit a wide open three from the corner.

With just 1:12 remaining in the game, USC was up by only one point and Utah was on fire, going 4 for 4 on their field goal attempts.

A buzzer-beater attempt from USC was no good and the game was sent into overtime – the second overtime of the quarterfinal games – with the teams tied at 71. Alfonso Plummer hit a three with just 32 seconds left in the first overtime period to tie the game up at 80-80. 

The Utes and the Trojans headed into a second overtime period as USC failed to convert on a last second layup.

Timmy Allen battled the entire game, until he fouled out in double overtime, to keep the Utes close, creating shot opportunities for his teammates as well as raking in 20 points and 13 rebounds of his own in the game. Allen’s efforts were no match for the Mobley brothers; Evan Mobley went for 26 points and 8 rebounds while Isaiah Mobley went for 11 points and 7 rebounds.

“I just thought he played an unbelievable game in the second half and the two overtimes,” said USC Head Coach Andy Enfield about Evan Mobley’s play tonight.

In the end, the USC Trojans were able to battle through and win the hard-fought double overtime game. They are headed to the semifinals where they will face the winner of the Cal, Colorado game happening later tonight. The semifinal game will happen at 8:30 tomorrow night.

“Our guys showed a lot of heart tonight to go double overtime and we're happy that we're moving on,” Enflied said.