Monmouth, USC pull off upsets
It was upset day on Thanksgiving at the AdvoCare Invitational basketball tournament.
Little-regarded Monmouth College of New Jersey and Southern Cal both knocked off ranked teams as they got things started off in exciting fashion at ESPN’s Wide Word of Sports on Walt Disney World property.
Monmouth dumped No. 17 Notre Dame 70-68 while USC held on to defeat No. 20 Wichita State 72-69 in the opening round. No. 22 Xavier managed to move on to the winners’ bracket with a 64-45 win over Alabama.
Xavier will face USC at 2:30 p.m. today and Monmouth will face Dayton — 82-77 winner of Thursday’s late game aganist Iowa — later today at 9:30 p.m.
MONMOUTH 70, NO. 17 NOTRE DAME 68: Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said Wednesday he knew his Irish would be facing a talented Monmouth team. The Hawks (3-1), who are from the tourney host Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, were coming off a win at UCLA and a close loss at USC.
Brey was right. Notre Dame led 37-29 at the half, but the Hawks came out of the break fired up. They went on a 10-2 run to tie it at 39-39 and then rolled out to a 62-51 lead with 7:33 remaining as little 5-foot-8 guard Justin Robinson took over.
The mighty mite scored 22 points, 19 of them in the second half and his two free throws with just three seconds remaining wound up being the game-winning points.
USC 72, NO. 20 WICHITA STATE 69: Every time Wichita State looked as if it was making a move to put away Southern Cal, Bennie Boatwright would slam the door. The USC freshman was unfazed by the basketball power Shockers, who came into the AdvoCare Invitational as the No. 20 team in the country. Boatwright and the Trojans didn’t care.
Wichita State came in a bit depleted, with All-American point guard Fred VanVleet out of the tournament due to an ankle injury. The Shockers, however, still had standout Ron Baker on the floor, and he’s no slouch.
Baker, and a heavily partisan WSU crowd, did all they could to keep the Shockers in the game. Baker scored 25 points against the upstart Trojans, but it wasn’t enough. Boatwright had 22 points, including 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point range, and red-hot USC sent Wichita State to the losers’ bracket with a 72-69 Thanksgiving victory.
“When you shoot it the way we did and they shoot it the way they did, you’re going to need to do the little things a little better, which we did not do,” Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said.
NO. 22 XAVIER 64, ALABLAMA 45: At Wednesday’s shoot-around in preparation for the AdvoCare Invitational, Xavier head basketball coach Chris Mack talked about his team only being as good as its defensive play. He was right. No. 23 Xavier did not start off well in its opening-round game against Alabama, but defense and rebounding maintained an edge for the Musketeers until the offense finally caught up in an eventual rout of the Crimson Tide.
“We played, obviously, much better in the second half than we did in the first half,” Xavier coach Chris Mack said. “Maybe there’s an adjustment period [at the HP Pavilion]. Both teams didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. Hopefully as we settle in, we’ll be better on offense.”