Freshman phenom Evan Mobley recorded his seventh double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds in route to Southern California’s 75-62 victory over Oregon State on Thursday at the Galen Center.
USC (13-3, 7-2) snapped OSU’s three-game winning streak and avenged a two-point loss from the Beavers (8-6, 4-4) after two teams played over a week and a half ago in Corvallis.
“We didn’t play a perfect game today,” USC head coach Andy Enfield said. “But we grinded out a home win, which was important since we’re going on the road on Tuesday.”
Mobley and graduate transfer Chevez Goodwin sparked the Trojans in dominating the glass with a 48-30 rebound advantage. Goodwin totaled 10 rebounds and the duo grabbed five offensive boards each.
“They played a physical and energetic basketball game for 40 minutes,” Enfield said.
USC scored 31 points off the bench and were able to counter each time Oregon State would go on a run.
Senior Isaiah White had 11 points and five rebounds for the Trojans, while sophomore Ethan Anderson and junior guard Noah Baumann added 10 points each.
Senior guard Ethan Thompson had 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists, sophomore Jarod Lucas added 18 points for Oregon State.
USC led 30-27 through 20 minutes of play but it was the second half where the Trojans were able to take control of the game.
“I feel like in the second half we were able to get our rhythm and up our intensity and up the pace of our offense,” Anderson said. “When our offense moves at a greater pace, our shots tend to fall a lot more.”
The Trojans used an 18-6 run to take a 65-49 lead with 5:28 left in the second half after Baumann buried a three-pointer that equaled their largest advantage of the game.
Lucas and Julien Franklin made back-to-back threes to get within seven, 58-65 for the Beavers, but the Trojans were able to close the game on a 7-4 run to hold on to a 75-62 victory.
USC has developed great chemistry for having a group that is still growing together with young and veteran led talent.
The Trojans have brought in five transfers to go along with their young star in Mobley who was named to the Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy watch list.
“That comes with having a whole new team like we have here,” said Anderson, who played a lesser role for USC in his freshmen campaign. “Those cold streaks and hot streaks tend to happen because we haven’t been playing together for a long time. As I said, we’re just continuing to get our rhythm.”
USC next will travel on the road to take on Stanford (10-6, 6-4) on Tuesday.
Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 P.M. on FS1.
