Chucky Hepburn scored 17 points and made a key steal in the final seconds to secure the Badgers’ 64-59 win over Southern California in the third-place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis on Friday at Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Hepburn shot 7 of 13 from the field, including 3 of 5 from beyond the arc, while Tyler Wahl added 14 points and nine rebounds. Connor Essegian finished with 12 points by going 4 of 6 from 3-point range, to go along with four assists, and Steven Crowl chipped in eight points and seven rebounds.
The Badgers (5-1) shot 25 of 56 (44.6 percent) from the field, including 10 of 24 (41.7 percent) from 3-point range, in addition to scoring 15 points off the Trojans’ 14 turnovers.
USC (4-3) was led by Drew Peterson, who scored 17 points on 6-for-15 shooting, including making all five of his six 3-point attempts, to go along with 10 rebounds and three assists. Boogie Ellis scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half and finished with four rebounds, while Kobe Johnson added eight points, five assists and three rebounds.
The Trojans shot 23 of 56 (41.1 percent) from the field, including an impressive 11 of 22 (47.8 percent) from beyond the arc, in addition to outrebounding the Badgers 36-32.
Trailing 57-54 with 5:42 left, the Badgers went on an 8-0 run capped by Hepburn’s jumper for a five-point lead with 1:07 remaining.
After Ellis’ jumper trimmed the lead to 62-59 with 50 seconds left, Hepburn missed a jumper with 26 seconds left and the Trojans called timeout with 20.1 seconds left.
Hepburn stole the ball from Peterson and raced in for a layup with 11 seconds to go to secure the win.
After USC took a 29-22 lead on Ellis’ jumper with 6:59 left in the first half, the Badgers closed on a 14-5 run to take a 36-34 lead at halftime.
–Field Level Media