A big early run helped No. 10 Southern California remain one of seven undefeated Division I teams and the Trojans ran past Georgia Tech 67-53 on Saturday in the Jerry Colangelo Classic in Phoenix.
Boogie Ellis led the Trojans (12-0) in scoring with 16 points and collected seven rebounds. Drew Peterson added 14 points, Chevez Goodwin tallied 13 and Isaiah Mobley and Ethan Anderson each had 11.
The Yellow Jackets’ leading scorer was Michael Devoe with 25 points, he was just 9 of 22 shooting (40.9 percent), followed by Jordan Usher with 11 points on 5 of 14 shooting. Georgia Tech drops to 5-5.
An early 14-8 Georgia Tech lead was quickly erased by the hot shooting Trojans, who made four 3-pointers as part of a 25-4 run and shot 9 of 19 (47.4 percent) for the game from deep. Peterson (four) and Ethan Anderson (three) spearheaded the effort with seven combined 3-pointers.
While USC was lighting it up from the floor, Georgia Tech struggled to find any consistency on offense.
USC’s lead got as high as 16 midway through the second half at 53-37, but Georgia Tech made its biggest run of the game to put the contest in some doubt. A 10-0 spurt brought the deficit to within six points with 6:13 to go, the closest the Yellow Jackets had been since the first half.
But USC came up with a big answer just in time to restore order. Peterson knocked down a 3-pointer to extend the lead to nine and Georgia Tech never got that close again.
Assists were a major advantage for the Trojans throughout the game, as their defense held Georgia Tech to five assists. USC had 13 assists and six different players recorded at least one. Peterson led all players with four, and was also tied with teammate Chavez Goodwin and Georgia Tech’s Khalid Moore for the game-high in rebounds with eight.
USC held a 42-34 advantage in rebounding, but had nearly twice as many turnovers at a 13-7 margin.
–Field Level Media
