Late first half woes cost Cougs in frustrating loss to USC
Katin Reinhardt scored 18 points and Southern California remained perfect at home with an 81-71 victory over Washington State on Thursday night.
Chimezie Metu and Nikola Jovanovic added 12 points apiece, Bennie Boatwright had 11 and Elijah Stewart scored 10 as the Trojans (16-5, 5-3 Pac-12) snapped a two-game losing streak.
USC led 52-41 at halftime and remained in front by multiple possessions the entire second half.
The Trojans improved to 12-0 at home this season and 14-0 in the state of California.
Ike Iroegbu scored 21 points for the Cougars (9-11, 1-7), who suffered their sixth consecutive loss. Que Johnson scored 16 points off the bench and Josh Hawkinson had 16 points and 11 rebounds for another double-double.
“(Johnson) makes mistakes, but you just have to live with them because he plays so well when he gets into a groove,” Kent told the Washington State IMG Network afterwards. “I thought he did a good job for us scoring the ball.”
WSU dropped to 1-6 away from home. The Cougars haven't won a true road game since Feb. 2015.
“We just have to clean up some things,” Kent said. “This team is so close. We just need a breakthrough somewhere, get a break and win a game. Then we can gain some confidence and momentum and get rolling again. I told our guys before and after the game that we are going to be a factor in this conference race by either knocking somebody off or we’re going to close out in a big way. We’re still trying to figure out how to win.”
USC's halftime edge came after a wild first half that featured 14 lead changes and 12 ties. The Trojans led just 41-39 with 3:18 to go, but switched to a full-court press out of a timeout and outscored the Cougars 11-2 the rest of the way heading to the locker rooms.
WSU missed its final five shots in the first half.
“The difference in the game came in the last three minutes or so of the first half,” Kent said. “We had missed assignments on rotations and gave up a dunk. We gave up a couple of fouls. We gave up a drive.
“Mentally, we lost our focus for about three minutes and they jumped on us and got up by 11. That was the difference in the game. We outscored them in the second half, but we could never make up that deficit we gave up (late in the first half).”
Iroegbu, who recorded his second straight 20-plus point game and fourth of the season, had 16 points in the first half for WSU and Reinhardt had 13 for USC. Both teams shot over 53 percent from the field.
That run at the end of the half gave USC all the breathing room it needed. The Trojans kept up their offensive firepower in the second half to stay ahead the entire way.
Washington State reeled off a 10-0 run late in the second half to cut the deficit to 70-64 with 5:31 to go. Coming out of a timeout, Hawkinson missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Nineteen seconds later, USC’s Jordan McLaughlin drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing and then found Metu under the basket for a dunk the following possession to re-extend the Trojans lead into double-digits at 75-64.
“This team has no quit in it. They continue to come back and they continue to let us coach them,” Kent said. “If we had knocked down those two (potential) free throws (when Hawkinson missed the front end of the 1+1), we would have put an enormous amount of pressure on a team that had been undefeated at home and involved in the race for the conference championship.”
The Cougars never got within three possessions again.
TIP-INS: Iroegbu scored 10 of the Cougars’ first 18 points...WSU dropped to 0-10 when trailing at the half this season...Hawkinson recorded his 15th double-double in 19 games this season.
UP NEXT: Washington State visits UCLA Saturday for a 4 p.m. PT tip at Pauley Pavilion.
PAC-12 SCORES (Jan. 27-28)
Colorado 91, Stanford 75 (1/27)
Utah 73, California 64 (1/27)
Arizona State 86, Oregon State 68
Oregon 83, Arizona 75
Washington 86, UCLA 84
USC 81, Washington State 71
(Wazzu Watch Publisher Scott Hood contributed to this report)
