Trojans travel well so far
They prevail against a tough opponent in their first road game this season.
NASHVILLE — USC took a risk going on the road this early in the season to visit a Southeastern Conference team, especially in an old, quirky gym against a program coming off back-toback NCAA tournament berths.
The gamble paid off for coach Andy Enfield and the Trojans.
Jordan McLaughlin scored a career-high 35 points, and 10th-ranked USC rallied from a 10-point deficit midway through the second half for a 93-89 overtime victory over Vanderbilt on Sunday night.
“It’s a great win for us, it’s a quality win,” Enfield said. “Vanderbilt is an excellent team, and to go on the road this early was going to test our team and it did.”
McLaughlin tied the score by hitting his fifth three-pointer of the game with 25.8 seconds left in regulation. He then scored the first five points of overtime as the Trojans (3-0) escaped.
Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew said his team knew McLaughlin hadn’t hit a three-pointer through the first two games, so the Commodores (2-2) focused on defending Bennie Boatwright, the Trojans’ leading scorer, and dunk threat Chimezie Metu.
“We wanted to see how many 11 [McLaughlin] could hit, and unfortunately he hit one too many tonight,” Drew said.
McLaughlin was surprised to see Vanderbilt go under late in regulation, worried more about Metu.
“I thought they were going to make some changes down the stretch,” he said. “They went under, and I got a clean look at it.”
USC first rallied from a 14-point deficit to lead 35-34 at halftime, and the Trojans trailed 62-52 with 9:36 left. Boatwright started an 8-0 run with a three-pointer, followed by a three-point play by McLaughlin to set up a thrilling finish and comeback in a game with six ties and eight lead changes.
Metu had 23 points in the Trojans’ first visit to Memorial Gym since Dec. 5, 1975. Boatwright finished with 14 points before fouling out late in regulation.
Matthew Fisher-Davis led the Commodores with 31 points and 11 rebounds.