Southern California eyes full effort against Montana State

Field Level Media|published: Sat 14th December, 21:17 2024

Dec 4, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans guard Desmond Claude (1) dribbles against Oregon Ducks guard Keeshawn Barthelemy (9) in the second half at Galen Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Southern California will try to get off to another hot start when it hosts Montana State in a nonconference game on Sunday afternoon.

The Trojans (6-4) are coming off an 85-61 win over Washington on Dec. 7 in a Big Ten game in Seattle, which ended a three-game losing streak.

USC shot 70.4 percent from the floor in the first half while scoring 51 points.

Four players scored in double figures, led by Desmond Claude with 20 points. Claude leads the Trojans with 13.6 points per game.

"I thought this was kind of a build-up for our team," first-year USC coach Eric Musselman said.

The Trojans had suffered a 68-60 loss to No. 12 Oregon three days earlier in its Big Ten opener in Los Angeles. USC owned a seven-point lead at the half against the Ducks and still led by eight with just over eight minutes left.

"We played well during the Oregon game for 30 minutes and then played poor basketball for 10 minutes, but that was against a ranked team," Musselman said. "We talked about a lot of the positives that happened even in the loss against Oregon, and I thought that we came back to have our best game of the year (against Washington)."

Montana State (5-5) has won four of its past five games, most recently knocking off visiting Kansas City 74-62 on Dec. 7.

Three of the Bobcats' five starters helped them win the Big Sky Conference last season.

Brandon Walker leads Montana State in scoring at 14.3 points a game.

Max Agbonkpolo, who played three seasons at USC from 2019-22, is second on the Bobcats in scoring (12.2) and leads in rebounding (5.9).

"I think you're seeing our length come to the forefront a little bit," Montana State coach Matt Logie said. "We've got great length across the board and that allows us to challenge shots closer to the shot pocket."

The Bobcats can be difficult to score against as well, especially from long distance, holding their opponents to 26.9 percent from 3-point range, 12th-best in the NCAA entering Saturday.

--Field Level Media