Survive and advance – it’s the name of the game in March basketball and the theme for the majority of the USC basketball season. And on Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the Trojans did exactly that.
No. 3 seed USC escaped with a 65-61 victory over No. 6 seed Washington in Thursday night’s Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals. The win improves the Trojans to 3-0 in quarterfinal action as a top-four seed under head coach Andy Enfield.
“I know it’s late, but we didn’t want anybody to leave the arena,” Enfield said jokingly. “So we kept it very interesting until the final buzzer.”
USC had no answer for graduate guard Terrell Brown Jr. from the outset. Brown poured in 21 first half points on 8-for-13 shooting, including a step-back three to put the Huskies up 39-33 with 90 seconds left in the opening frame.
“First half, we made some defensive mistakes,” Enfield said, adding that their goal after the break was to try and hold him to 27 points on the night.
Guards junior Boogie Ellis and freshman Reese Dixon-Waters paced USC’s first 20 minutes with seven points apiece. Foul trouble forced Ellis to the bench with 5:57 still to play in the first, but a Dixon-Waters corner 3-pointer kept the Trojans within three at the intermission.
Last time out on Saturday, USC lost the turnover battle to UCLA 15-1. Those struggles traveled to Las Vegas Thursday night as the Trojans coughed the ball up 23 times.
Two of those came in under a 60-second span in the second half, and the Huskies pounced with a 5-0 run after a layup from Brown to push Washington ahead 44-36.
Brown never scored again. The conference’s leading scorer missed his next 10 shots as USC held Brown scoreless over the final 18:14 of the game.
“Just taking it personal as a team,” Ellis said of Brown’s first half performance. “Nobody wants guys to come out here and score a lot on us. I talked to the guys at halftime, and we told each other if we could shut him down in the second half that we would win the game. And we did.”
The opening half may have belonged to Brown, but Ellis took center stage in the second. Back-to-back threes from the junior guard helped the Trojans turn the tide almost immediately, cutting the deficit to 46-44 at the under 16 media timeout. They took the lead seconds later on an and-1 from junior forward Max Agbonkpolo.
Ellis finished with a team-high 17 points – the Trojans are now 8-1 when he scores at least 16 points – and came up with a strip of Washington graduate guard Daejon Davis to preserve USC’s 61-58 lead with two minutes to play.
“I thought Boogie’s defense was really good in the second half,” Enfield said.
Despite the re-emergence of USC’s late-game inbounding issues, the Trojans never relinquished that lead. Two turnovers in the final 45 seconds gave the Huskies the ball with a chance to tie, but a pair of stops from junior forward Isaiah Mobley sealed the deal.
“Isaiah’s one of the best defensive players we’ve ever had here,” Enfield said. “To be able to protect the rim like he did with a big block and go out and guard Matthews at the 3-point line and stay with him.”
USC advances to Friday night’s semifinals and locks in round three of the Crosstown Showdown with No. 13 UCLA. The Trojans have won five of the last six against the Bruins, but the pair split the season series with each team winning on their home floor.