SMU’s buzzer-beating drive against USC came up just short, and the Trojans moved on

In one of the most exciting games of these opening two days of the NCAA tournament, No. 11 USC beat No. 6 SMU in the East regional on Friday, 66-65.

The Trojans will play No. 3 Baylor in an East region round-of-32 game on Sunday. The winner of that game plays next week in the Sweet Sixteen against either Duke or someone who upsets Duke, but that’s a ways off at this stage.

The teams traded three-pointers in the last two minutes — one after the other after the other — to set up a wild finish. Trailing 66-65 with 12 seconds to play, SMU’s Ben Moore missed the front end of a one-and-one, and then USC’s Chimezie Metu did, as well.

SMU’s game-winning bid at the buzzer, from guard Shake Milton, came up inches short. USC ran down the court celebrating, and the Mustangs were devastated.

The game-winning basket, as it turned out, was a three-pointer by the Trojans’ Elijah Stewart with 37 seconds left on the clock. There were no points after that.

SMU star Semi Ojeleye made one of the plays of the tournament earlier in the second half, and it looked like that would be the moment of the game. Ojeleye saw a missed Mustangs three-pointer and decided he’d clean it up himself.

Ojeleye ran in from beyond the arc to deliver an absolute hammer. It was the most ferocious and disrespectful dunk of the tournament so far, and it came at a point when USC was pressing to take the lead. These things are partially coincidental, but SMU pushed its lead to 53-43 over the next few minutes.

That arm’s-length edge would become critical as the teams raced down the stretch. USC was playing its second game in three days, after the Trojans had to win a First Four game against Providence on Wednesday. But the Trojans found a second wind after falling behind, and they made the finish a pretty exciting one. They tied the score at 54 with just more than seven minutes left, setting up a furious finish.

USC didn’t grab its first lead until just about two minutes remained, when Bennie Boatwright hit a three-pointer to make it 63-62, Trojans. SMU answered with a Shake Milton three-pointer that gave SMU back a two-point lead. USC answered with its own three after that.

It felt like a “last shot wins” kind of ballgame. It turned out it wasn’t.