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Chad Baker-Mazara hits Braden Smith in face, no flagrant foul called after review

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh01/18/26griffin_mcveigh

The USC Trojans came close to pulling off an upset on Saturday afternoon with the Purdue Boilermakers in town. In the end, USC fell just short and fell back to under .500 in Big Ten play. There was some controversy in the final moments, though, as Purdue felt like some extra free throws should have been handed their way.

Down one, Braden Smith forced an important turnover, going down to the other end and getting a bucket. Not without some contact to the face area from Chad Baker-Mazara. Smith immediately went to the ground and began to grab his face due to Baker-Mazara’s whiffed block attempt.

Officials did go to the monitor to review the situation. USC head coach Eric Musselman was not too thrilled, as he wanted to push the ball up the court down three. Instead, the game was stopped to see if Baker-Mazara would be hit with a flagrant foul. Ultimately, they decided against it. You can check out the full moment here.

Unfortunately, there is a reputation surrounding Baker-Mazara in these situations. Two different ejections came his way as a member of the Auburn Tigers. One came in the NCAA Tournament vs. the Yale Bulldogs, being sent back to the locker room early on. Auburn went on to lose and greatly missed Baker-Mazara’s presence.

Almost a year later saw a similar situation play out in another critical game. The Alabama Crimson Tide were on the Plains for another edition of the bitter rivalry. Baker-Mazara got tossed for elbowing the back of the head of Chris Youngblood. Auburn eventually fell in a heartbreaker due to a Mark Sears buzzer-beater.

USC will be thankful nothing more came of the moment with Smith, even if the game result did not go their way. Baker-Mazara, who has been dealing with an injury, put together a solid overall performance. He finished with 15 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Two other Trojans were in double figures but Baker-Mazara wound up as the leading scorer.

Smith, once again, had a great game of his own. His 22 points led Purdue, something we have become really used to seeing. You can add four rebounds and five assists to the stat line, proving to be Purdue’s do-it-all man. And while focus came on the potential flagrant foul on Baker-Mazara, the sequence began because of a defensive play made by Smith in a critical moment.