Coming off a 67-62 loss to No. 15 Arizona to be eliminated from the Pac-10 tournament, USC looked to turn it around in the NCAA tournament by winning against the Virgina Commonwealth Rams in the first-four matchup to enter a first round duel against No. 8 seeded Georgetown Hoyas.
However, USC will not advance in the first round as the Rams defeat the Trojans in Dayton by a score of 59-46 in an ugly game all around for the Trojans.
USC was out rebounded by the Rams, 36-29, and out shot on 3-pointers, 9-1. It wasn’t pretty for both teams on the free throw line either, but the Trojans got the worst end of the stick with 15-25 shooting, which is 60 percent.
USC also turned the ball over 16 times today and fouled the Rams 20 times, compared to the Rams’ 24. This resulted in early exits for guards Marcus Simmons and Jio Fontan, as well as Forward Nikola Vucevic, who only shot the ball five times in the game.
Fontan led the Trojans in scoring with 14 points, two behind the leading scorer in the game by Jaime Skeen of VCU.
The Trojans end their season with a record of 19-15.
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