Ethan Anderson's career-best game powers USC over UCLA, to top of Pac-12

This was supposed to be a big season for USC sophomore point guard Ethan Anderson. Aside from 5-star freshman Evan Mobley, no Trojan was generating more preseason buzz with talk about his growing confidence on the offensive end, his improved 3-point shot, his comfort in the point guard role, etc.

Then his back flared up. Tests were inconclusive, the persistent pain frustrating, and a 2-3 week injury turned into six weeks out of action. Even in the games he had played since returning, Anderson was more of a role player in terms of production.

But Saturday night was a glimpse into what all that preseason chatter was about. This was Anderson's moment, and he picked quite a time for it, scoring a career-high 19 points and hitting 5 of 7 3-pointers to lead USC to a dominant 66-48 win over No. 21 UCLA inside Galen Center.

It wasn't just a crosstown rivalry showdown but a battle for first place in the Pac-12, and with the win the Trojans (15-3, 9-2) are at the top of the standings with the early head-to-head advantage over the Bruins (13-4, 9-2).

"It's a goal of ours to try to compete for a Pac-12 championship. We're excited to be where we are, but we also understand it's a long season ahead. Nine games is a lot," coach Andy Enfield said. "Any team in this league, you see a lot of so-called upsets in our league that have happened over the last few weeks, the teams at the top can't take anything for granted and we certainly aren't going to."

This Trojans team has impressed all season, playing much of it with really only one returning contributor (sophomore forward Isaiah Mobley) and a whole bunch of new pieces figuring out how to play together. Anderson was supposed to be a stabilizing presence through that process, and if Saturday night was any indication at all of what's to come, it only further boosts the ceiling and potential for this squad.

He had hit a couple 3s in the first half to help USC build a 30-20 halftime lead, but it was in protecting and extending that lead after halftime that Anderson truly asserted himself.

UCLA had cut the Trojans lead to 36-29 a little more than 5 minutes into the second half when Anderson dropped in a floater as a quick response. Then after a Tyger Campbell basket for the Bruins, Anderson answered again -- draining a wide open 3 from the right side. Following a Johnny Juzang score, Anderson swished in another high-arching 3 from almost the same spot.

This time UCLA missed on the other end, and the Trojans maintained possession after Max Agbonkpolo missed the second of two free throws with the ball eventually swinging back to Anderson at the top of the key. He was calling for it and knocked down yet another 3-pointer to push the lead to 48-34.

Two and half minutes later Anderson would find himself with the ball on the left side of the perimeter, and now he had the Bruins' full attention -- finally. As the defender played him tight, Anderson drove past him this time and dropped in a pretty reverse layup to make it make it a 55-38 lead with a little more than 9 minutes remaining.

The game was never remotely close again.

"This is a very big night for me. I had my career high, and just in terms of my confidence and my demeanor, this is a big night for me just because I haven't seen my shots fall the way I wanted them to in a couple games, and I really was just trying to help the team win," Anderson would say afterward. "... Just in terms of me stabilizing myself and reminding myself that I can play at the highest level and I can play with anybody, this is a really big game for me and I'm glad my teammates trusted me with the ball and my coaching staff and we did a great job of being unselfish tonight."

The sophomore point guard had gone scoreless in 14 minutes in USC's win over Stanford on Tuesday, and he was averaging just 4.8 points over the six games since returning from the back injury.

His previous career high had been 14 points -- against UCLA last year -- and he'd never made more than 2 3s in a game for the Trojans before dropping in 5 Saturday night.

"Ethan played tremendous basketball tonight on both ends. ... He has improved his shooting. He's a very good shooter with his feet set, and he just had a tough go early in the year with his injury," Enfield said. "Whenever you have a back injury it just affects your whole body. He missed six weeks and then he had to get back in shape. And he's still trying to get back to where he was. I thought tonight was a great game to get his confidence where it needs to be here for us to compete in the next nine games."

Said teammate Tahj Eaddy, who was second on the team with 16 points (including 3 3-pointers): "It's definitely big-time to see. We know this is what Ethan is capable of. We've been seeing it since the summer. We know he's capable of really filling it up."

The unknown was whether he'd get the chance again to do it this season. Both Anderson and Enfield were candid about the significance of the back injury that ultimately sidelined him in the third game of the season.

"I had a few different diagnostics and it was really hard for the doctors to tell what was going on and what was really wrong with it. They couldn't exactly pinpoint the injury, so I got a lot of diagnostics in terms of [was it] a bulged disc or I had a couple fractures in my back. Some showed up on the CAT Scan and X-ray and stuff. So we had a hard time just knowing, I wanted to know exactly what was wrong with me and they couldn't really tell me from all the scans and stuff," Anderson said. "But I was able to figure it out -- proper stretches, proper treatment -- for me to be able to get back to playing. I just wanted to get back to playing pain-free because even those first two games I was playing it was really hurting me.

"So I'm just blessed to be here and play pain-free and able to just play the game that I want to. I'm still getting back in my groove, trying to get my rhythm and defensively I'm not as good as I used to be when I first started playing, so I'm still getting back in shape and getting back into the groove."

To clarify, Anderson said he still doesn't know exactly the nature of the injury, but he indicated he's dealt with back discomfort previously.

"I still actually don't have a really a final resolution to it. But what really caused it was just over time, even in high school I had lower back tightness and stuff like that. And I kind of just stretched it and ignored it, and me being the competitor I am I just wanted to play so I just tried to ignore it and keep playing on it," he said. "So we still really don't know exactly what it is, but I definitely know how to keep it away and keep it from flaring up again."

Enfield was asked if there was ever a point he wondered if Anderson would be able to come back at all this season.

"We didn't know for sure. Anytime you have disc issues or back ... sometimes the discomfort and the pain is just too much," he said. "So we were hopeful. We thought that with the proper rest and our excellent medical staff that he would come back or could come back. We just didn't know how long it would take, and initially we thought it might be 2 or 3 weeks and it ended up being 6 weeks, so it was a little longer than we initially hoped, but then we were worried that we just wanted him to get back at some point this season. It's a credit to Ethan -- he's a tough young man, very mentally tough, but when you're out six weeks during the season it certainly wore on him from a mental aspect. And now he's back and we're very excited for him."

As for the game, UCLA was missing three key players with leading scorer and rebounder Chris Smith out for the season with an ACL injury, starting forward Cody Riley out with an ankle injury and key reserve forward/center Jalen Hill out for personal reasons.

As a result of missing so much size, the Bruins surprised USC by using a zone defense -- which helped keep Evan Mobley to 9 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks -- but the Trojans' outside shooting conquered that. Meanwhile, UCLA shot just 33.9 percent from the field -- including just 3 of 19 from 3-point range. Juzang was the only Bruin to score in double figures with 13 points, but he hit just 6 of 21 shots from the field to get there.

And now the teams are tied atop the standings with, as Enfield noted, nine games to play. USC hasn't won a Pac-12 regular-season title since sharing it with Washington in the 1984-85 season.

"It was a good win for our team. UCLA is an excellent offensive basketball team, I think they were top 15 in the country and to hold them to 48 points [is] a credit to our players. They challenged most shots and did a very good job of staying focused on the game plan," Enfield said. "So it was a good team win -- we're excited to be where we are. ... It's a long season ahead, we have nine more games."

The players shared a little more emotion about the big win, meanwhile.

"Definitely, it's sweet. We were confident coming into the season, throughout the summer. We were picked to finish sixth and we kind of looked at each other like, 'Like, what? There's no way.' So we're not surprised. We're not surprised," Eaddy said. "This is what we expected and we're just trying to keep the ball rolling. We expect to win championships so this is the right step forward."

Added Anderson: "I've been telling people all summer and leading up to this season that we have some big-time transfers, and nobody really knew their name. We didn't have any 5-star transfers come in -- all they knew was Evan Mobley that was joining us -- and I kept telling them, repeating their names. ... I kept repeating those names. And I'm so glad, I'm not happy I got hurt, but I'm happy our team got a chance to have a lot of other people step up and really show what they can do. ... I really enjoyed watching them take over this team and really will us to where we are. I just added [another] piece to it when I came back."