By Tony Solorzano
After being forced to sit out last year’s tournament due to the NCAA sanctions levied in the O.J. Mayo case, head coach Kevin O’Neill had nothing but praise for his team on their first postseason game in two years.
“These guys here stepped up big time as did the rest of the team,” O’Neill said after the game. “I thought their effort was tremendous and we need to make sure we have that same kind of effort tomorrow, no matter who we play.”
The Golden Bears looked like they had the Trojans’ number as they jumped out to an 11-3 lead in the first eight minutes of the half. Although they managed to hold the lead to eight points for the majority of the half, the Trojans spent about nine minutes chipping away at the lead until tying the score 20-20 with three and a half minutes left.
From that moment on, the Trojans never trailed again. They went into the locker room at half time leading 35-27 on Marcus Simmons’ three-pointer with one second left. The second half continued the onslaught as the Trojans built an 18-point lead within the first eight minutes of the second half and maintained a double digit lead for the remainder of the game.
“We knew we had a tough job,” Cal head coach Mike Montgomery said after the game. “We knew we were going to have to play well and we didn’t play well enough to win, so give credit to SC. They beat us.”
Allen Crabbe led all scorers with 21 points in the losing effort for the Golden Bears, however, only Brandon Smith and Richard Solomon managed to reach double figures for Cal, scoring 10 and 11 points, respectively. Maurice Jones was the leading scorer for the Trojans and one of four in double figures. Donte Smith and Alex Stephenson each had 14 and Jio Fontan contributed 12 points as well. Stephenson also dominated the boards with 16 rebounds, 11 on defense.
The Trojans will meet top-seeded Arizona Friday evening in the first semi-final match of the Men’s bracket.
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