LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Amare Hereford scored a team-high 14 points and the Milwaukee men's basketball team dug out of an early deficit but could never get all the way back in falling to nationally-ranked Southern California Monday evening at the Galen Center.
"Their early scoring run really changed everything," head coach
Bart Lundy said about USC. "Their positional size and length really bothered us. We had to make some adjustments on how we attacked them. But I thought we competed until the end."
The Panthers (0-1) cut their deficit substantially against the No. 21/22 Trojans (1-0) and were withing 15 points on a handful of occasions in the second half, only to see the home team make shots to pull away and secure the victory.
"We got it down to 15 a couple times," Lundy said of the second-half deficit. "Everyone got chances to play tonight. We got to learn a lot about our team, and we will lick our wounds and get ready for Santa Clara."
Hereford played above his years in making his collegiate debut, adding three rebounds and a pair of assists in a 5-of-12 shooting night.
Tre Norman recorded 13 points and four rebounds in his MKE debut, while
Isaiah Dorceus was also in double-figures with 10 points.
Jake Hansen made a solid debut despite being limited by foul trouble, scoring eight first-half points while making both of his shots from downtown.
John Lovelace Jr. made his return to game action for the first time in over 600 days after coming back from a season-ending injury last year and contributed six points on 3-of-6 shooting in 16 minutes of playing time.
"Really positive from those two young guys," Lundy said of Hereford and Hansen. "I thought our older guys played better in the second half once they settled in. And we'll grow from this. This was a tough task. They're better than No. 21 in the country. It's a tough task to open up here on the road so far from home against an opponent with the positional size they had."
USC had five players notch double-figures, led by a game-high 25 points from Adonis Ratliff. Ratliff, one of a pair of highly-touted 7-foot tall twins who were McDonald's All-Americans, made 7-of-10 from the floor overall and 5-of-7 from three-point range. His brother, Darius, added 14 points and five blocks. Rodney Rice, named to the Naismith Trophy Men's Player of the Year Watch List last week, posted a statline of 15 points/9 assists/6 rebounds.
"Their All-American freshmen guys made threes, 7-footers that can step out and shoot it." Lundy said. "And then Rodney Rice, who's also probably going to be an All-American candidate, made plays when they needed it and opened it back up."
Back-and-forth for a bit at the start, USC capitalized with a 25-5 scoring run to eventually build a 37-16 advantage. Hansen started hitting after that and a Hereford drive on MKE's final possession cut it to 17 at intermission at 46-29.
The team then had the gap down to 15 on a handful of occasions in the second but a stretch where the Trojans connected on 8-of-9 from the floor helped them put it away in an eventual 95-63 decision.
"Take the run out in the first half and then they made the three's down the stretch and the game was basically over," Lundy said. "But we had our chances. If we play a little better basketball in the first half, we keep this close and give ourselves a chance."
For the game, the home team wrapped up the night at 56.9 percent (33-of-58) from the floor, making over half (12-of-22) of its 3's. Milwaukee ended at 37.1 percent (23-of-62) from the floor overall and heled its own in the rebound column, trailing at just 37-31.
Up next, the Panthers remain on the road and travel to take on Santa Clara Wednesday, a program who is receiving votes in the preseason national poll. Game time is set for 9 p.m. CT.
