USC bench comes up big vs ASU with Iwuchukwu out, Morgan in foul trouble

Remember that thin #USC bench? When asked to play a lot of crucial minutes, this maligned group stepped up big. #FightOn

USC Trojans head coach Andy Enfield made a somewhat surprising decision on Saturday night, inserting Reese Dixon-Waters into the starting lineup.

Dixon-Waters has played well at times his season, particularly in the weeks since he came back fresh from his February injury. However, against the Arizona State Sun Devils, he struggled big time with just 3 points on 0-3 shooting from the field and a pair of turnovers. That certainly isn’t what Enfield was hoping for when he made the switch and moved Tre White to the bench.

After Dixon-Waters’ performance against Arizona, this move made sense, and USC needed his offensive spark in a lineup where it has been mainly Boogie Ellis recently.

However, it didn’t happen. Dixon-Waters was unable to get his game going. That seemed to spell doom for the Trojans, but in one of the biggest and best plot twists of the whole season, the USC bench did well despite the switch-up.

Tre White led the bench with 13 points and was the only USC player not named Boogie Ellis to finish in double figures. Harrison Hornery scored 4 points and Oziyah Sellers added 3 points, and Kijani Wright filled the stat sheet. 

Wright finished with just 3 points but added 7 rebounds with an assist, a steal, and a pair of blocks in some busy minutes for USC on a night when Vince Iwuchukwu was out and Josh Morgan got into foul trouble. Wright was everywhere, and Tre White was busy scoring points as the USC bench surprisingly stepped up with the insertion of Dixon-Waters into the starting lineup.

With the Pac-12 Tournament coming up, let’s see if Enfield keeps Dixon-Waters in the starting five.

[mm-video type=video id=01gtkyr3c6r7xay4vmvy playlist_id=none player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gtkyr3c6r7xay4vmvy/01gtkyr3c6r7xay4vmvy-c952906256f4f2251439d344282299db.jpg]

[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696091895]