USC's offense struggles as Pac-12 Tournament run ends with loss to Arizona
LAS VEGAS — As Arizona began to find its rhythm, each bucket felt like a dagger.
The most piercing, though, was Caleb Love’s pull up 3-pointer that stretched the Wildcats’ lead into double digits with 26 seconds remaining in the first half.
To that point, USC had held Arizona in check, but Love’s triple made it imperative that a struggling Trojans’ offense cleanly execute in their first possessions of the second half. When those went awry the Wildcats’ advantage grew.
“If you want to come out and say, ‘our offense sucked,’ that’s OK,” Trojans head coach Andy Enfield said.
The Trojans (15-18) shot 20 of 56 from the field and guard Boogie Ellis, who had 25 on Wednesday scored just 6 points, as they fell to Arizona, 70-49. The loss, effectively ending their season, and pinching shut a streak of four straight wins.
A notable revelation of that recent surge had been USC’s play on the defensive side.
Its succinct rotations when running man to man. Its connectedness in zone. Its swiftness to alter between the two in the flow of the game. On Thursday, it decided to stick with that man to man throughout after it helped cool down a blistering Washington offense Wednesday.
And, in the first half, it had impacted the Wildcats similarly.
Ellis, Isaiah Collier and Kobe Johnson, who scored a team-high 14, crept into passing lanes. Ellis came up with a loose ball on the opening possession then Collier picked off Kylan Boswell’s kick ahead the following time down the court.
When the Wildcats (25-7) drove past point of attack defenders, their shots were often swatted by Joshua Morgan, who had two blocks in the first 13 minutes, and added a third in the second half.
“We really made it tough on Arizona,” Enfield said. “And they made it tough on us.”
The Wildcats matched their foe’s intensity, disrupting offensive sets by bumping cutters and fighting through down screens as those cutters tried to fight for position.
“It was a very physical first half,” Enfield said. “It's hard when your leading scorers, especially Boogie, had a tough shooting night and we just didn't convert when we had open looks.”
Enfield felt those opportunities were there for his Trojans, mainly because the Wildcats played drop coverage.
At first, Ellis seemed capable of countering that strategy — one that afforded him and Collier space to launch open jumpers, but asphyxiated them on drives. He hit consecutive 3-pointers to tie the score at 10, those two being his only baskets Thursday.
With 3:57 left in the first half, Ellis missed a 3, Johnson corralled the long rebound and found Pelle Larsson for a triple that sparked the Wildcats.
“We were able to settle into the game,” Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Maybe things weren't coming easy, but we hung with it. So I'm really proud of them.”
From there, they seemed to turn it up a notch, their offense clicking to complement their suffocating defense.
Johnson hit a 3 right out of the break and the Wildcats stretched their lead to 20 by dominating the offensive glass. With 13:35 to go, KJ Lewis soared above Morgan to put back Love’s miss and replicated that hustle 21 seconds later. Lewis led Arizona with 15 points off the bench.
Two possessions later, Jaden Bradley grabbed Lewis’ miss and found Larsson for a 3.
At that point — with a little over a quarter of the allotted 40 minutes left — USC had accumulated just 26 points. The lead hovered, consistently, around that 20-point margin, USC’s energy seemingly zapped by Arizona’s activity on the boards.
“I’m kind of in shock,” forward D.J. Rodman said post-game, not specifically referring to the second-half drudging, but to the meaning attached to it.
The reality, suddenly, hitting him that his collegiate career had come to a close with the end of USC’s season. And although it was a campaign laden with lumps, Enfield insisted that this final stretch — where their starting five had healed from mid-season injuries — made it so that the season was’t defined by those lumps.
“Very challenging,” he said. “Disappointing? Absolutely not. Because, the last month, once we got healthy, Boogie and Isaiah came back, and then Josh came back. We’re very proud of this team, we compete at a high level.”