University Southern California Trojans
USC
Wyoming
No. 20 USC Edges Out Wyoming, 68-55
November 13, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Nov 13, 2001
Box Score in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES - Sam Clancy scored 22 points and newcomer Jerry Dupree added 13 as No. 20 Southern California opened the season with a 68-55 victory over Wyoming in the Preseason NIT on Tuesday night.
The Trojans advanced to the second round and will play at Fresno State on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Dupree hadn't played in a year after spending last season at a junior college in San Bernardino to improve his grades. He previously played as a reserve at College of Southern Idaho.
But he appears ready to replace Jeff Trepangier after showing the same athletic dunks and leaping ability that the former Trojan possessed.
Coming off last season's final eight berth in the NCAA tournament, the Trojans started three underclassmen against the Cowboys, who are favorites to win the Mountain West Conference.
Josh Davis, last season's Mountain West player of the year, led Wyoming with 16 points. But the rest of the Cowboys' big front line of 6-foot-10, 260-pound Uche Nsonwu-Amadi and 6-9, 245-pound Ugo Udezue got into foul trouble and scored two points each.
Clancy and Dupree got the Trojans off to a quick start in the second half, scoring the first six points as USC took the game's first double-digit lead, 42-32.
Nsonwu-Amadi picked up his fourth foul and Udezue got his third in the first two minutes of the second half. Wyoming got no closer than four points on Udezue's only basket with 14:30 remaining.
USC outscored the Cowboys 9-2 to take a 55-44 lead with 9:11 to play. Dupree started the run with a dunk and David Bluthenthal, who didn't start, scored his only points of the game in the spurt.
The Trojans closed the game by outscoring the Cowboys 9-3.
USC trailed by seven in the first half before scoring the final 11 points to take a 36-32 halftime lead. Nsonwu-Amadi picked up his third foul for the Cowboys, who missed two baskets and committed two turnovers during USC's run.
The Cowboys were without point guard Chris McMillian, whose streak of 89 consecutive starts ended. He is recovering from offseason leg surgery and now has a bone spur on his left foot.
