Bennie Boatwright had it going at tipoff.
“Honestly, I went into the game feeling like I hit five in a row,” the USC forward said.
It ended with Boatwright hitting the game-winning 3 from about 27 feet with 4.1 seconds left, as the Trojans scored the final nine points to beat New Mexico State 77-72 on Christmas at the Stan Sheriff Center and become the first program to win two Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic championships.
Boatwright lived up to his nickname “Bennie Buckets,” scoring a career-high 33 points on 10-for-16 shooting, including 6-for-10 from long range, in outdoing NMSU guard Zach Lofton, who was impressive in his own right with 28 points on 10-for-17 shooting with six 3-pointers.
The versatile 6-foot-10 Trojans junior was named tournament MVP.
“Everyone knows how good a player Bennie is,” USC coach Andy Enfield said. “He had a couple rough games, games we lost. And he didn’t shoot the ball well, and didn’t play that well. But he stayed in the gym, he’s healthy now … now I think you’re seeing Bennie with a lot of energy and a desire on the floor to help our team win.”
USC (9-4), which won the inaugural DHC in 2009, entered this tournament with a host of problems. Chief among them was an ongoing FBI investigation of recruiting impropriety that cost the Trojans an assistant in the preseason and led to an important player, De’Anthony Melton, sitting out every game so far this season. He was finally declared ineligible by the school around the time the rest of the team arrived in Honolulu.
There’s been a litany of injuries, including to Boatwright. Then, Boatwright got ejected after scoring two points in 13 minutes in USC’s opening-round DHC win over Akron. The Trojans had to overcome a nine-point second-half deficit against Middle Tennessee in the semifinals.
But now it’s on to Pac-12 play for the team that was ranked No. 10 in the preseason, then stumbled out of the rankings with losses to Texas A&M, SMU and Oklahoma. An overtime defeat to Princeton at the Galen Center just before flying to Hawaii added to the woe-is-us feeling.
“We’re a resilient team. We’re used to being down,” Boatwright said. “I don’t know, for some reason we like to make it hard. We just keep fighting.
“We’ve had a pretty eventful preseason. Guys not being able to play. … Sometimes we don’t even know who’s going to play because guys be hurt. But, I feel like we’ve all come together now.”
Boatwright and point guard Jordan McLaughlin (12 points, eight assists) helped pick up fellow star forward Chimezie Metu (six points) against a recklessly athletic team in NMSU of the WAC, which crashed for tip-ins at every opportunity.
NMSU (11-3), which upset No. 6 Miami in the semifinals, led for most of the second half but missed its last two shots and committed two turnovers on desperation fullcourt passes.
NMSU wing Jemerrio Jones nearly finished with a triple-double (13 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists).
“Their length and athleticism bothered us as the game wore on, especially in the second half,” NMSU first-year coach Chris Jans said. “A lot of credit goes to them. They dug in defensively.
“At the end of the day, Bennie Boatwright was just too hard to guard for us tonight. He made some shots, I don’t think it would’ve mattered who was guarding him.”
