Even after Seton Hall men’s basketball’s statement win over the No. 23 North Carolina State University Wolfpack on Monday, ESPN’s matchup predictor gave the University of Southern California (USC) Trojans a 71.9% chance to win the following game—better odds than last game, yes, but the Pirates were still the underdogs.
Unlike last game, SHU couldn’t beat those odds, as USC handed them their first loss of the season, 83-81, in the semifinal round of the Maui Invitational at the Lahaina Civic Center in Maui, Hawaii, on Tuesday.
This might come as a surprise to anyone who watched the first half of the game, as SHU looked like the better team for most of it: by halftime, they had recorded eight steals (their most in a single half this season) and shot an efficient 56.7% (17-for-30) from the field. They even led by as many as 13 points with just five minutes left in the half.
But USC junior guard Rodney Rice heated up at the end of the half, scoring 13 of USC’s final 17 points before the break to help cut the Pirates’ lead down to just four, as they led 42-38 at halftime.
“We didn’t end the first half well,” SHU head coach Shaheen Holloway said after the game.
Although the Pirates were able to extend their lead back to as much as eight points early in the second half, USC eventually took the lead with 13 minutes remaining. Behind the scoring of forwards Chad Baker-Mazara and Ezra Ausar, the Trojans held onto the lead until the final buzzer, winning 83-81. SHU did manage to pull within one point in the final minute, but ultimately couldn’t complete the late comeback, as they fell to 6-1 on the season.
Holloway said the game flipped in USC’s favor in the second half due to the adjustments the Trojans made as well as their strong offensive rebounding.
“I give USC a lot of credit,” Holloway said. “I thought in the second half they made some adjustments, and on the offensive glass, I don’t think we did a great job of boxing out. I thought that was the difference in the game, so kudos to those guys.”
Indeed, the Trojans outrebounded the Pirates on the offensive glass in the second half, 11-to-4, which then led to nine second-chance points for them.
USC head coach Eric Musselman said this surrounding the Pirates on offense was part of the team’s strategy to win the game.
“Coming into the game, we felt the theme or the story of the game was going to be the battle of the boards,” Musselman said. “We doubled them up on O-boards and won the battle of the glass …against a really physical team.”
Being a really physical team, Holloway also pointed to foul trouble as another factor in the game flipping in USC’s favor. At halftime, three of the team’s starters had two or more personal fouls, including junior guard Adam “Budd” Clark, who had three. Both he and fellow junior guard Mike Williams picked up their fourth fouls with less than ten minutes remaining, forcing Holloway to rely more on his bench unit late in the second half when it mattered most.
“We were in foul trouble, so a lot of the key guys couldn’t play as much,” he said. “The reverse guys got to do a better job of holding the fort down when guys are in foul trouble—that’s kind of when the game flipped.”
But perhaps the biggest factor was the free-throw discrepancy between the two teams in the second half. The Pirates shot 10 free throws in the first and eight in the second; meanwhile, the Trojans shot 25 free throws in the second half alone, finishing with a total of 38 attempts in the game. Ausar, who led the Trojans with a game-high 25 points, drew 13 fouls and shot 19 free throws himself in the game.
Typically, a discrepancy like this can be expected of a team that shoots more from the outside than drives to the basket—but SHU is not one of those teams. In fact, the Pirates tied their fewest 3-point attempts of the season with 15 in this game. Through six games, they rank second-to-last in the BIG EAST in 3-point field goals attempted per game (6.3) and third-to-last in total 3-pointers made (38).
That’s all to say that their lack of free-throw attempts in this game isn’t for a lack of drives to the rim or an abundance of 3-point attempts. Holloway acknowledged the impact this had on the game, while also emphasizing that his team played just as physically as USC.
“Like I said, I thought they did a good job on the offensive glass, and with just pounding and driving and driving and driving—they went to the free throw line a lot,” Holloway said. “And I think that’s where we kind of got stagnant on offense.”
“I just know that they’re a physical team like we’re a very physical team,” Holloway added. “We wasn’t even shooting that many threes (laughs).”
Despite the loss, the Pirates will play one more game in Maui, as they face Washington State in the third-place game of the tournament on Wednesday.
With another short turnaround, Holloway is focused on getting the team ready for the next game.
“But we just got to get ready for tomorrow,” Holloway said. “Tournaments like this, it happens, right? You lose a tough one, [but] you got to go regroup, and our guys got to get in the ice bath and do everything they got to do to try to get ready to get one tomorrow.”
Clark, who led the Pirates with a season-high 18 points and seven assists, expressed confidence in the team by saying something vaguely similar to his coach’s closing thoughts from Monday.
“Although we lost, I feel like we’re taking steps in the right direction,” Clark said.
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
