Field Level Media
Jan 20, 2018
Jordan Usher buried three 3-pointers during a 18-0 second-half flurry Saturday night, enabling USC to overcome a 7 1/2-minute scoring drought and defeat Oregon State 74-67 in Pacific-12 Conference men's basketball play in Corvallis, Ore.
Usher finished with 14 points, all but two on 3-pointers, and Elijah Stewart had a team-high 18 for the Trojans (15-6, 6-2), who completed a sweep of the Oregon schools with a fourth consecutive victory.
Tres Tinkle led all scorers with 21 points for the Beavers (11-8, 3-4), who had beaten UCLA 69-63 on Thursday night.
USC trailed by as many as eight early in the second half and was still down 54-47 before Usher connected on his first of the three 3-pointers with 7:46 remaining.
After Chimezie Metu narrowed the gap to two with a pair of free throws, Usher bombed in consecutive 3s to make it an 11-point run and push USC into a 58-54 advantage.
Jordan McLaughlin dropped in two layups, the second as part of a three-point play, and Stewart connected on a pair of free throws, making it an 18-0 run that gave the Trojans a 65-54 lead with just 4:11 to play.
Oregon State, which went 4:13 without a point in the game-turning drought, never got appreciably closer the rest of the way.
Metu and McLaughlin totaled 12 points apiece for USC, which missed 10 consecutive shots while being outscored 9-0 early in the second half. The run gave Oregon State a 45-37 lead.
McLaughlin added six assists and two steals to his double-figure scoring game.
Stephen Thompson Jr. had 16 points to complement Tinkle's 21 for Oregon State, which has lost three of its last four games.
Tinkle and Zach Reichle had seven rebounds apiece, helping the Beavers accumulate a 37-26 edge in the game.
USC led by as many as eight points in the first half, then needed two free throws from McLaughlin with one second remaining to take a 35-33 advantage into the intermission.
The free throws by McLaughlin were the only two the Trojans shot in the half.
--Field Level Media