Gibson destroys BC, Obama's bracket

March 20, 6:37 PMUSC Trojans ExaminerNeal Leitereg

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AP Photo/Jim Mone

Taj Gibson was unstoppable against the Boston College Eagles Friday night in the Trojans' opening round match in the NCAA Tournament, leading USC to an impressive 72-55 victory. Coming into the game against the 7th-seeded Eagles team, who had knocked off an impressive list of ACC foes during the regular season, the 10th-seeded Men of Troy have been playing their best basketball of the season.

The reigning Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year could do no wrong against Boston College, throwing down ferocious dunk after ferocious dunk and finishing the game with an outstanding 24 points on an incredible 10 of 10 shooting.

Gibson's electric play on the court carried the Trojans through most of the game and inspired the rest of his USC teammates. One of the more impressive aspects of Gibson's performance was the fact that he was able to continue to play at a high level even with four fouls with about six and a half minutes remaining.

Southern California started the game well, with Dwight Lewis hitting one of his trademark three-pointers, as well as a couple of savage throw downs by Gibson and freshman guard DeMar DeRozan. However, as the Trojans began to increase the tempo of the game, their play began to get a bit out of control. A missed dunk, a blown lay-up, and a sloppy pass later, and the Trojans went into halftime trailing the Eagles 34-30.

One of the big keys to the second half turnaround was the strong defensive effort by the Trojans, who held the Eagles' leading scorer, Tyrese Rice, to only 9 points. Rice had averaged 17.1 ppg for the season coming into this game.

While Gibson was truly the star of the game, there were a couple of other notable Trojan performances. DeMar DeRozan continued his stellar play registering 18 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists, while Dwight Lewis chipped in 20 points after hitting 4 of his 7 three-point attempts.

It has been an impressive start to the NCAA Tournament not only for Southern California, but also for the Pac-10 conference in general. After calling the Pac-10 conference “weak,” President Obama picked the Washington Huskies as his lone Pac-10 team that would advance out of the first round. However, USC, Arizona, ASU and UCLA all got the last laugh as their wins in the first round of the tournament obliterated the President's bracket. Sorry, Mr. President, it looks like you should probably stick to health care reform and stimulus packages rather than March Madness predictions.

Next up for the Trojans is a second round match up against the winner of the Michigan State/Robert Morris game.
 

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