USC basketball wins second straight with double-digit victory over Montana

The USC men’s basketball is off to a 2-0 start after beating the University of Montana, 76-62, on Saturday night at the Galen Center.

The win comes one week after notching an overtime win against Cal Baptist in USC’s season opener. On Saturday, the team emerged with focus and chemistry.

“Our first night was kind of ugly,” said USC senior Chevez Goodwin. “It wasn’t our best basketball, but it was our first night in nine months, a lot of people forget that. But I think this night was a lot better. We played a lot better as a team and our biggest thing moving forward is trying to focus on our energy.”

Three Trojans ended the night in double figures. Drew Peterson led the Trojans with 13 points, followed by Evan Mobley with 11 points, six rebounds and Isaiah White with 10 points.

Isaiah Mobley had six points and 13 boards while Goodwin chipped in eight points and seven rebounds.

Brandon Whitney led Montana, which finished third in the Big Sky last season, with 17 points.

The Trojans opened on a 7-0 scoring run with Peterson sinking a 3-pointer less than 30 seconds into the game and they never relinquished the lead on their crowd-less home court due to coronavirus precautions.

“It just shows the level of talent we’ve got out there,” Peterson said. “Especially with our bigs and everyone, when we’re playing as a unit, our talent can take us to levels that can win us a Pac 12 championship and we know that. So when we’re playing efficiently and we’re ready to go, we get outcomes like this.”

The Grizzlies (0-1) scored their first points a little over three minutes into the game on a Michael Steadman jumper, but couldn’t muster much more.

Goodwin and Evan Mobley threw down back-to-back dunks midway through the first half to give the Trojans a 23-6 lead, which grew to a 44-25 lead by the break.

Peterson got the scoring going in the second half with a 3-pointer from the top of the key, and later, Ethan Anderson assisted Evan Mobley on consecutive baskets to make it 52-29.

The Trojans scored 32 points in a second half littered with fouls to secure the win.

“I thought because of the fouling, it was hard to get into an offensive rhythm, and that went for both sides because we fouled too much on the defensive end,” said Trojans coach Andy Enfield. “The second half was very choppy, it wasn’t the the nice flow we had in the first half.”

USC now turns its attention to the Roman Legends Classic, in which it will play Brigham Young on Tuesday in Uncasville, Conn.