Gophers Beat USC 55-40
December 3, 2011

In their best defensive game of the year the Minnesota Gophers beat the University of Southern California 55-40 at Williams Arena. In their second game without Trevor Mbakwe, lost for the season with a knee injury, the Gophers were also without Ralph Sampson, who is still nursing an ankle injury.

Freshman Elliott Eliason started in the post for the Gophers and contributed 4 points and 9 rebounds before fouling out with a minute-and-a-half left in the game. Minnesota coach Tubby Smith said he didn’t mind his big man racking up fouls as a result of aggressiveness and praised Eliason’s play in the game.

Swingman Rodney Williams took the power-forward spot and blocked 3 shots, grabbed 9 rebounds, and also scored 12 points, had 3 assists, and 4 steals. He said he likes the position, especially being able to use his speed to get around a bigger man. Smith commented on Williams’s “athleticism and quickness” in playing power forward.

Williams’s most notable play came after a USC time out with 2:31 left in the first half and the Trojans trailing by seven points. Williams and Andre Hollins swarmed Trojans point-guard Maurice Jones, who fell and gave up the ball. Williams grabbed it and had a breakaway, finishing with a spin-around dunk. “I just wanted to do something to get the crowd into it,” he said. When asked, Williams said his coach had anything to say about his showmanship.

With Smith was asked about Williams’s dunk, he said he hadn’t seen it. “I don’t care about dunks,” he said, then asked reporters what Williams did. His response to being told that Williams had done a 360-degree spin, the coach merely said, “Good for him.”

Minnesota built a 28-16 halftime lead despite 12 turnovers. Julian Welch had three of those in the first half and said Smith talked to the guards in the locker room. “We were pretty careless the first half, so I just took it upon myself to be smarter with the ball,” said Welch, who didn’t have any turnovers in the second half and finished the game with 16 points and 6 assists.

Smith said he was happy with the 16 assists the Gophers had on their 20 field goals as well as how the Gophers shared the ball and moved without the ball. He wasn’t happy with the turnovers, though, as the Gophers had 18 to 12 for USC.

“If you would have told me that we would have come in here and [Minnesota] had 18 turnovers and we had 12, I would have liked our chances to win the game,” said USC coach Kevin O’Neill. However, poor shooting and a lack of rebounding killed any chances of winning for the Trojans. USC made only 6 of 28 shots from the field in the first half (21.4 percent) and finished the game shooting only 32.7. “We missed 14 shots in the paint, went 5-for-11 at the line,” lamented O’Neill.

USC is without playmaking guard Jio Fontan, who will miss the season after surgery on his knee in September.

“Shutting Maurice Jones down is the ultimate key to that,” said O’Neill. “When your 2-guard [Aaron Fuller] shoots 2-for-11, that is not going to leave your point guard much room.”

Minnesota outrebounded USC 21-10 in the first half and 34-24 in the game. Seven-foot sophomore Dewayne Dedmon, who was averaging 6 rebounds per game before a stress injury in his right foot, returned and had 2 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots in 26 minutes. “It was decided he [Dedmon] would go this morning,” said O’Neill. “We gave him an opportunity to play because he was pain-free. It is going to be a day-to-day, week-to week situation. He did a pretty good job. He hasn’t practice the last week so he did a pretty good job.”

Smith characterized the game as a “solid effort all the way around. I thought our defense was outstanding, we rebounded the ball well, we played together. We’re happy with the win and hoping we get Ralph back pretty soon.”