USC is shaken by injury, disease to blow Penn State – San Bernardino County Sun

Los Angeles – The blood broke out angrily from the nose of Wesley Yates III, in four minutes clock on the game, surrounded by the caves of the center of Galen.

On Tuesday morning, USC Basketball coach Eric Musselman left his house, convinced that his program would play against Penn State without two of his three best goal scorers. He had told his wife Daniel, in fact. Chibuzo Agbo, Jr. was so ill that he had missed one of the practices for the week to get IV fluid, and Musselman had to be restrained by the frightening that his best shooter was missing from Game Prep. Yates, an ascending freshman of USC, had caught the same mistake. To make things worse, the point of security, Desmond Claude, was coming down from the absence of two knee injury games.

To make things worse: Yates hit the first half against Pen State, immediately grabbed a towel to his face and went straight into the dressing room with what Mussellman thought was a broken nose.

But this program, built by a head coach whose deceased was a Musselman, a legendary chief coach, once preached: When you are in a difficult place, play your most difficult boysS And they were difficult, Claude said after the match. Everyone was difficult.

And through sweat with electrolytes, through blood on hard wood, the USC crime looked as healthy as throughout the season at 92-67 Penn State explosion.

Claude played 36 of 40 minutes, ending with a brutal eight rpm, but igniting the USC attack all night with 14 points at the 5th firing of 6. Yates played 36, alone, never out of the court outside of the first half and ended with 13 points in the shooting of 5 of 8. AGBO went nuclear, to the flu game to remember, giving up the corners with 21 points and the best in the career seven 3-indicators in the night that the Trojans fired bubbles 67 % of the terrain.

“We knew this was a very important game,” Claude said. “So we had to dig deep into ourselves and lock ourselves.”

This was not a Marquee match. This was important in the end of survival. Penn State entered the bottom of the big ten and yet somehow ahead of USC (14-10, 6-7 Big Ten in total) in the NCAA net ranking. Loss of Nittany Lions (13-12, 3-11) meant that he is involved in most chances of the NCAA tournament, and Musselman conveyed on his list that the game on Tuesday is a must.

The only problem: this list was downplayed. So much that Musselman canceled the day of the shooting, turning him into an impromptu step, with three beginners in the middle of rehabilitation.

“I want to say this is a game that I will remember for a while,” Musselman said, “Just for how much we are not sure about what is happening.”

Claude’s presence was the key, with USC missed its initiator desperately in the losses of the previous week for the Northwest and Purdu. He had suffered bone bruising in the USC victory over Michigan on February 1, his knee swelling for next week. Musselman told reporters that Claude could be “out three weeks” and received such a constant rehab that he had taken his team on Tuesday straight into the coach’s room.

The knee looked very good, as Claude Euro-erected around big men and finished reverse reversions and struck a rather lateral 3-chain in virtuoso performance: eight rpm, but eight assists and 14 points in firing 5 out of 6. His pure presence, attacking The tape, suddenly opened the world of Mussellman’s insult space, the ball sang around the perimeter and found cutters inside, 40-31 halftime does not lead anything compared to the avalanche that is yet to come.

In 11 minutes in the second half the Trojans did not miss a single shot from the floor.

AGBO entered Tuesday night, wearing 20% ​​of a 3-point scope in their last six games. And illness. But he descended with 3-indicated at the beginning of the second half, which headed from the front of the rim and descended home, nodding from the basketball gods.

He hit three more within four minutes, all the catch and shot seems to be generated by Thomas and Claude discs. Yates added a nasty step back 3-indicated, flashing a youthful smile on the back. In an incoming game, Claude broke a trap to find Yates that touches a shrewd Thomas that teak-so returned to Yates, who descended on the tape to find a cutting of a coin to lay a play that would be played Make James Sasmite smile somewhere.

The Center Josh Cohen, which is re-launched as a starter after losing the work of Rashaun Agi, played the most minutes (21) from January 4, limiting 6-foot 10 Janic Conan Nighterhauser, Penn State’s second leading goal scorer, to one point and one bounce. AGBO hit a few more 3 more 3 more, and my colleague Pierced Yates added a few consecutives in the second half.

And USC moved away from the center of Galen with its season very alive and well.

Originally Posted: February 11, 2025 at 20:35 PST