Pac-12 Basketball: Takeaways from Stanford’s upset over No. 5 USC Trojans

Unbeaten USC loses to unranked Stanford behind the outstanding performances of Spencer Jones, Harrison Ingram, and the Trojans’ poor offensive performance.

The Stanford Cardinal beat the USC Trojans on Tuesday. The final score of the game was 75-69. This was USC’s first loss of the season. Stanford moves to 9-4 with this victory.  The leading scorer for the Trojans was Isiah Mobley. Mobley scored 16 points on 3 of 5 shooting from the floor. Mobley’s performance was one of the only positives USC had from this game.

Additionally, Chevez Goodwin had a good performance as well. Goodwin scored 11 points on 5 of 8 shooting from the floor. Despite solid performances from Mobley and Goodwin, USC was not able to overcome Spencer Jones and Harrison Ingram.

One of the reasons the Trojans lost against Stanford was the fact that they were not able to make their free throws. In today’s game, USC went 65% percent from the free-throw line. On the year, USC  is averaging 60 percent from the free-throw line. Making free throws would come up huge in this game as it was a close affair the entire way.  In this game, USC was not able to make free throws down the stretch. If the Trojans want to go far in the NCAA tournament this year, they will need to work on their free throws.

The game was a tight affair, as often the score was tied or USC was up by two points.  Although it was a tight affair, it seemed that USC would avoid the upset until very late in the game. ESPN’s win probability had USC winning the game until midway in the second half.  Stanford was able to win this game behind Harrison Ingram and Spencer Jones.

Spencer Jones had a spectacular night for Stanford. In Tuesday’s affair, Jones put up 21 points, two rebounds, and one assist.  Overall, he shot 53% from the floor. In the game, he was able to hit three 3s. This game was well above his season averages. On the season, Jones has averaged nine points per game on 48% shooting from the floor. Most of his points came from driving to the basket.  Additionally, he was able to hit some nice mid-range shots.

Overall offensively Jones had an awesome night against the Trojans. Another player that excelled for Stanford was Harrison Ingram. Ingram scored 21 points,10 rebounds, and two assists. Ingram also excelled from the 3-point line in this game as he shot 60% from three.  Ingram and Jones made up 54% of Stanford’s points.

In the game, USC struggled from the floor.  Overall, they shot 42% percent from the floor and a horrible 28% percent from three. On the year, USC is shooting a much better 35% percent from three. Finally, the bench performance for them was very poor offensively. The bench only scored 13 points against Stanford. Overall the offensive performance for the Trojans was not up to standards. If the offense shot better from the floor against Stanford, they would still be unbeaten.