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- Point guard Rodney Rice produced only the second triple-double in USC men’s basketball history in an 87-67 win over Illinois State.
- After its 21-point lead shrank to six points early in the second half, USC’s defense tightened to help secure its third win.
Rodney Rice hadn’t played much point guard in two years at Maryland when, last spring, Eric Musselman offered him a chance to do just that at USC. The coach had already tried, with mixed results, to convert an off-ball guard into a natural point last season. But he was desperate to find a floor general to lead his Trojan offense. So Musselman took “a leap of faith,” entrusting things would be different with Rice.
It didn’t look like much of a leap Friday, not as the Trojans’ new point guard rolled to just the second triple-double in school history, leading USC past Illinois State with an 87-67 victory at Intuit Dome.
Rice poured in 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, the last of which secured history in the waning seconds as teammates tried to purposefully put the point guard in position for one last pass. He found forward Ezra Ausar under the hoop for a dunk — and with the bucket, joined Daniel Hackett in the record books as the only other Trojan to accomplish the feat.
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“Man, I’ve never even gotten a double-double before,” Rice said, with a smile. “So yeah, I was going for it. For sure.”
Musselman encouraged as much out of Rice who was initially expected to share lead guard duties this season after playing off-the-ball at Maryland. Then, shortly after Rice committed, last year’s lead guard, Desmond Claude, bolted for the transfer portal. A few months later, five-star Alijah Arenas sustained a serious knee injury, further complicating USC’s ballhandling plans.
Suddenly, Rice was the only logical option left at the position.
“To be honest, that’s always been my game,” Rice said. “I just had a role to play last year. It was a big role. But yeah, I have a great opportunity here where I can handle the ball more, make decisions and just be more of a point guard.”
Musselman still had his concerns at the point coming into the season. But Rice certainly looked the part Friday, finding teammate after teammate near the basket or slicing toward the hoop. He had 15 of his 21 points in the first half, powering the offense largely on his own.
USC’s defense was the story at that point, with the Trojans stifling Illinois State from the start, holding the Redbirds to a mere three baskets inside the arc before halftime. It was exactly the sort of suffocating defense Musselman envisioned his team playing this season, its size and length proving too much for outmatched Illinois.
That is, until the start of the second half Friday, when USC’s ferocious defensive effort hit a wall. Musselman later blamed the lull on a lack of conditioning, after an all-out blitz on that end to open the game.
“To play at the rate that we were playing at defensively is hard to do,” Musselman said.
With USC (3-0) catching its breath, it didn’t take long for Illinois State (1-2) to fire its way back into the game. A 21-point lead late in the first half was cut to six just six minutes into the second.
The Trojans’ offense was ice cold at that point, with the exception of Ausar, who scored USC’s first eight points of the half.
Chad Baker-Mazara scored 26 points to lead seven USC players in double figures in an easy win over Manhattan.
But then Chad Baker-Mazara, who scored 18, hit a step-back three-pointer. Seven-foot-5 center Gabe Dynes slammed home a dunk to give him 14. And the stifling defense from the first half snapped back to attention.
Less than three minutes after Illinois State had drawn within striking distance, USC cruised out to a 16-point lead. Its point guard took them the rest of the way.
It wasn’t until he reached the visiting locker room that Rice finally cooled off. There, his teammates were waiting with water bottles ready to drench him in celebration, knowing full well how much Friday meant to their newly minted point guard.
