Tyrone Wallace's game winner inspires rare court storm against USC
USC may be the only team with a 1-9 conference record to ever have a court stormed at its expense.
Cal fans couldn't resist after the remarkable game-winning shot guard Tyrone Wallace sank Thursday night as the buzzer sounded.
With 4.9 seconds left and Cal trailing by two, David Kravish rebounded a missed free throw by USC's Jordan McLaughlin and threw an outlet pass to Wallace. The 6-foot-5 junior dashed past mid-court, pulled up in front of a pair of USC defenders and buried a top of the key 3-pointer to give Cal a badly needed 70-69 win over the Pac-12's last-place team.
Cal's student section flooded onto the court and mobbed Wallace, a spontaneous reaction of joy that was understandable under the circumstances even if the quality of the opponent wasn't court storm-worthy. The Bears won their third straight and improved to 14-9 overall and 4-6 in the Pac-12, keeping slim hope alive of a second-half surge into NCAA tournament contention.
Of course it should never have been so close at home against a USC team that has defeated only one Pac-12 team besides Cal in the last two years of conference play. The Bears led by as many as 14 points before nearly allowing the visiting Trojans to storm back and steal the win.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
