NCAA Tournament 2016 :Unmarked Bullock Steals the Show with Game-Winner (VIDEO)

In the match between Providence and Southern California, it was expected that South California would focus their defense strategy on either the Big East's player of the year or the league's top scorer - definitely not on Rodney Bullock.

Providence was aware of the same, and therefore critically and subtly pushed Bullock under the bucket via inbound passes. Bullock obliged with a crucial shot to seal a victory against the Southern Californians and remain alive in the NCAA tournament. The hit came with a little over a second left to the end of the play, which helped Providence defeat USC 70-69 in the first round of the tournament. A major reason cited was that most of the attention and defense was focused on Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil (owing to their previous performances) which was optimally exploited by the team to capitalize on the loopholes and score a decisive hit at the end stages.

Bentil scored a total of 29 points and Bullock score 16 (with 10 rebounds) which allowed the Friars to register their first victory in the prestigious tournament. They would be facing the top seeded North Carolina in the Second round, scheduled to be held on Saturday.

For South Carolina, Jordan McLaughlin scored a total of 15 points with a few crucial misses in the final minute. Their guard Julian Jacobs was of the opinion that their team had control over the game throughout, but gave it apart in the end. The missed throw of Jacob with little more than 11 seconds left and Dumped missed jumper with 5 seconds left, did prove detrimental to their losses against the Friars. Post the match, Bullock revealed that he was supposed to curl off of Kris (the Big East player of the Year) and both the defenders went with Kris, thus leaving him a wide open spot under the basket which was latched upon by him.