This was the kind of game many envisioned all along back when 5-star phenom Evan Mobley announced he would be joining his brother Isaiah, a fellow former McDonald's All-American, at USC.
The two, a year apart, had grown up playing together, causing nightmares for opponents in high school or on the AAU circuit or really anywhere they teamed up with a basketball.
And at least on Wednesday evening, it could have been any of those settings as the Mobley brothers had their best combined game as USC teammates, leading the Trojans to an 89-71 home win over Arizona State.
Evan Mobley continued to do what he's done most of the season, furthering his Pac-12 Player of the Year campaign with 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting along with 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks. But the story of the night was older brother Isaiah matching that with best game in two years as a Trojan, finishing with a career-high 20 points (9-of-15 shooting) and a team-best 12 rebounds.
"It's just amazing me and him have two great games. We had a feel for each other in this game, great chemistry ... and it's just great to see him do well tonight," Evan Mobley said afterward.
Added Isaiah: "Games like this where we both do well, him feeding me highlights, me getting him highlights, the team winning by a good margin, us in first place in the Pac-12 -- only thing missing is the fans but it's definitely been an excellent ride so far. ... I'm glad that I'm picking it up now and hopefully we can ride this thing out and keep winning like this and make a run in the tournament."
The Trojans have every reason to start thinking big like that. They are now 18-3 overall -- the program's best start since the 1973-74 season -- and in first place in the Pac-12 at 12-2. They've won seven straight and 13 of 14 overall.
And they only seem to be getting better down the stretch.
Again, Evan Mobley is mounting a strong case for conference player of the year and other honors, leading USC in scoring (16.8 points per game), rebounding (9.0 per game) and blocks (3.1). The 7-footer has been as advertised -- maybe even with a more polished offensive game than some expected.
For Isaiah Mobley, meanwhile, it's been a season of improvement from his first year to his second. The 6-foot-10 forward's scoring is up from 7.4 PPG last season to 9.8 and his rebounds from 6.2 to 7.8 per game. But his offensive contributions have been inconsistent overall. Sometimes his shot isn't there, or his free throw shooting (just 46.3 percent for the season) undermines him on that end of the court. He had scored in double figures in just one of the previous eight games.
On Wednesday, though, he looked determined to make a statement.
"I know what's at stake. This team is excellent, and it seems like when I get going everyone else gets going and we kind of win by a bigger margin," Isaiah Mobley said. "I just feel I've been lacking in some of the games, so I just want to make a good run both as a team and for myself for the team, so I tried to pick up the intensity, keep working on my skills -- both at the free throw line and other little things on the outside and finish on my opportunities when I get the ball on the inside as well to try to help us win."
He had many such opportunities against an undersized Arizona State team that came in with the gameplan of doubling his younger brother. Once Evan Mobley identified that strategy, he started looking for Isaiah -- like they've surely done so many times over the years in various settings. Overall, it was Isaiah's sixth double-double of the season.
"His man was the one that was doubling us so anytime I got it in the post his man would come over, I'd see him for a quick second, trust him and pass it to him," Evan said. "The opposite wing guy really wasn't cracking down and coming over so I just hit him and it was an easy layup every time."
It sure looked easy. The two combined for 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting in the second half alone in helping the Trojans pull away after a high-scoring but tight first half that USC led 46-44.
"I thought the first half looked like the NBA All-Star Game," Trojans coach Andy Enfield joked after the game.
In the second half, the Trojans improved their defense and honed in on their intentions to leverage that size advantage inside. In fact, the Mobley brothers combined for the first 19 USC points after halftime.
It started when Isaiah followed his own miss with a tip-in on the Trojans' first second-half possession. After an ASU miss, Evan dropped in a 3 from the top of the key and then stole an inbounds pass on the Sun Devils' end of the court and took it coast-to-coast for a dunk and a 53-44 lead.
Arizona State (7-10, 4-7)) would draw it to within 55-52 before the next surge -- a slick pass backwards by Evan with his back to the basket to Isaiah for a one-handed dunk and subsequent successful free throw. The visitors answered, but Evan danced through the paint for an easy basket and then on the next possession threw down a second-chance dunk of a teammate's miss.
A few possessions later, Evan backed down his defender and fed Isaiah for another easy layup to stretch the lead to 64-54.
The game never got closer than 6 points the rest of the way, and another Mobley-led sequence helped put it out of reach late.
Evan drained a long jumper at the end of the shot clock, Isaiah followed with a second-chance layup, Evan turned another steal into a dunk, Tahj Eaddy sank a 3 and Boubacar Coulibaly capped an 11-0 run to stretch the lead out further in the final minutes.
Afterward, Enfield talked about the "luxury" his team has in the frontcourt.
"Having two bigs who are skilled is a luxury. If you play two true bigs like we do ... they have to space the floor with each other, can't run on top of each other. Last year, you noticed our spacing was very poor at times. We played with two true bigs on the court last year too, but this year we have more skill in our frontcourt with Evan, Isaiah and Chevez [Goodwin] and they've learned how to space off each other. And the guards have also learned how to create space for themselves," he said.
"... It is a nice luxury to have big guys because if you do play two true bigs at the same time they need to space the floor and be able to read the defense and pass the ball at the appropriate time, so we're very fortunate."
Enfield has commented all season that Evan Mobley deserved more assists most nights if only the guards had converted on his smooth kick-out passes. As a result, his season-high was just 4 before his 7-assist performance Wednesday.
"That's what he's capable of doing. He's had many games this year where he should have had 2-3 more assists in each game just because our guards miss open shots, but tonight the guys were making shots for him and also he was reading the defense to throw it down low to Isaiah if they were late on their cover-downs," Enfield said. "And if they were early he threw it out to the guards. Evan, I thought he looked like Tom Brady with the ball in his hands just reading the defense and making the right play."
USC shot 11 of 20 from 3-point range overall and the guards definitely did their part as Eaddy finished with 18 points (on 7-of-13 shooting), Drew Peterson snapped out of a prolonged slump with 11 points and point guard Ethan Anderson had 8 points and 4 assists.
Arizona State, which was missing key contributors Josh Christopher and Marcus Bagley due to injury, got a game-high 30 points from guard Remy Martin.
"Offensively, we played great the whole game. Defensively the second half is what we're accustomed to and what we expect out of our team," Enfield said. "We've been playing good basketball in this stretch during the Pac-12, but we know it's game to game. We have a very talented Arizona team coming in here on Saturday."
