USC moved to 4–0 on the college basketball season with a buzzer-beating escape from visitor Troy on Thursday night in Los Angeles.
USC's 107–106 win featured an early candidate for the best buzzer-beater of the college basketball season thus far. With Troy leading 106–104 in triple overtime, the Trojans (of Troy) were inbounding under their own basket. The ball was thrown away and USC's Rodney Rice came up with a steal. He threw an outlet pass to backcourt mate Jordan Marsh, who threw up a perceived prayer as time expired that found the bottom of the net.
USC coach Eric Musselman was at a loss for words after the game.
“You look at his three-point percentage, and thus far, it’s pretty good,” Musselman said of Marsh. “But that was obviously a broken play, and I am glad that I didn't call a timeout.”
Marsh ran through the wild sequence with the press after the game.
“I saw one of the Troy players just lob the ball to another player, and then I saw Rodney, so I knew Rodney was going to get the ball,” Marsh said. ”I just went to the open spot on the court, saw that there were three seconds left when I caught the ball, and I just shot the ball and it went in.”
The Trojans were paced by Chad Baker-Mazara’s 34 points. Rice added 26 while Ezra Ausar scored 22 for USC in the win.