USC continues to rise up off floor
For the second straight NCAA Tournament game, Southern California overcame a double-digit deficit in the second half to win.
Elijah Stewart hit a late 3-pointer for the 11thseeded Trojans in an upset of sixth-seeded SMU, 6665, yesterday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Tulsa, Okla.
USC trailed SMU by 10 in the second half. The Trojans trailed Providence by 17 in the second half of their First Four game on Wednesday night before winning, 75-71.
Apparently, they know how to quit.
“We just had to keep fighting back,” Stewart said. “We’ve been in those positions before. So we’re don’t kind of seasoned to it. And you just can’t stop. You just got to keep going.”
Stewart had 22 points for the Trojans (26-9), including the game-deciding 3-pointer with 37 seconds to play.
“We ran the play previously before, and I was open,” Stewart said. “And then we had the media timeout. We discussed it. We ran the same play again, and I was open, and I just let muscle memory take place.”
Bennie Boatright and Chimezie Metu each added 14 points for USC, which plays Baylor tomorrow.
SMU’s Shake Milton missed a floater at the buzzer that would have won it for the Mustangs.
Semi Ojeleye had 24 points and 10 rebounds and Sterling Brown had 17 points for SMU (30-5), which had won 16 straight.
Baylor 91, New Mexico State 73 — After two years of surprise early NCAA Tournament exits, the Bears finally broke through.
Al Freeman came off the bench to score 21 points, and third-seeded Baylor (267) defeated the 14th-seeded Aggies (28-6) in Tulsa, Okla.
Reserve forward Terry Maston scored 19 points, Jo Lual-Acuil scored 16 and Johnathan Motley added 15 points and 10 rebounds for Baylor, which suffered upset losses to Georgia State and Yale in the first round the previous two years.
Motley said the previous losses served as motivation.
“No one wants to leave the tournament early,” he said. “Our ultimate goal was to come in and just win it, so we want to just take every game for what it is and make sure we come in and just play our hardest, play desperate, because after this, you lose, you go home.”
Ian Baker and Braxton Huggins each had 19 points for New Mexico State.
Duke 87, Troy 65 — Grayson Allen had 21 points off five 3-pointers, Jayson Tatum had 18 points and 12 rebounds, and the secondseeded Blue Devils (29-7) continued their perfect postseason with a victory over the 15th-seeded Trojans (22-15) in Greenville, S.C.
The Blue Devils improved to 34-7 all-time in openers and put this one out of reach early with their 3-point shooting.
Jordon Varnado had 18 points to lead Troy, which made its first NCAA appearance since 2003.
South Carolina 93, Marquette 73 — Sindarius Thornwell had 29 points and 11 rebounds to help the seventh-seeded Gamecocks (23-10) win their first NCAA Tournament game in 44 years, easily beating the 10th-seeded Golden Eagles (19-13) in Greenville, S.C.
If the Gamecocks want an NCAA winning streak, they will have to beat Duke tomorrow.
South Carolina last won a game in the NCAAs when it topped Southwestern Louisiana 90-85 in a regional consolation game on March 17, 1973. Exactly 44 years later, the drought — the Gamecocks were one-anddone in their next five appearances — finally came to end in front of a boisterous, South Carolina crowd who traveled the 2 hours north from Columbia to witness the end of an ugly run they couldn’t have imagined would last this long.
Marquette gave fans some serious worries in the opening half, going up by 10 points. But the Gamecocks used an 11-0 run midway through the second half to take control. When Thornwell, voted Southeastern Conference player of the year by league coaches, nailed his third 3-pointer with 6:37 to play, South Carolina was up 76-67 and pulling away.
P.J. Dozier had 21 points, 13 in the South Carolina’s second-half rally.
Jujuan Johnson had 16 points to lead Marquette.