In a star-studded evening at Galen Center, the No. 21 USC Trojans did not disappoint their home fans. Caleb Williams, Natalia Bryant and even Chris Rock watched on as USC took down CSU Bakersfield, 85-59, in its home opener.
The game was a quintessential team effort by the Trojans, as five different players reached double figures.
In his second collegiate outing, freshman guard Isaiah Collier showed the Galen Center crowd his five-star talent. Collier scored a career-high 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting and was lethal throughout the night finishing at the rim.
His prowess as a finisher was never more apparent than it was in the final two minutes of the first half. Collier switched hands to execute a reverse layup against double teams twice in three possessions to help USC end the first period on a 16-2 run.
“I learned a lot in the summer,” Collier said. “It took me a while to learn Trojan basketball as far as defending at a high level. The offense came with it, but it took a while. It is hard-nosed basketball, and we compete every day.”
Collier’s second-half highlights included a full-court sprint into the paint to score an and-one and an alley-oop feed to freshman forward Arrinten Page. The true freshman displayed his court vision throughout the night, leading the team with five assists. When he was playing his best basketball, the Trojan offense was just about unstoppable. When he struggled, the entire unit suffered as a result.
The only downside of Collier’s performance was his team-leading four turnovers, three of which occurred early in the second half, contributing to a five-and-a-half-minute scoring drought for USC. The Trojans turned the ball over 12 times as a team, with seven during that stretch.
“We give our guards a lot of freedom to play basketball, and they have to make decisions,” head coach Andy Enfield said. “[Collier] has to figure out what to do when he gets [where he wants to on the court]. The decision-making has to keep improving, to know when to stop, when to pass the ball and when to shoot it.”
The scariest moment of the night came during that scoreless streak. As Collier attempted to drive to the basket, he collided knees with a defender and hit the Galen Center floor hard. He remained down, right in front of the USC bench, for a few moments and then slapped the hardwood in utter frustration. As an eerie silence came over the arena and Enfield made his way over to check on his player, Collier jumped right back up to inbound the ball. At no point afterward did he appear to be affected by the injury.
Despite the momentary offensive struggles, Bakersfield could never chip into USC’slead. The Roadrunners were wildly inefficient from three, shooting 4-of-16. Until the last stretch of the second half, when the Trojans had the game well in hand, Bakersfield was shooting below 40% from the field.
The Roadrunners’ low-scoring total was also a result of USC’s pesky defensive approach. The Trojans recorded 11 steals as a team, with seven coming from Collier and fifth-year guard Boogie Ellis. Junior guard Kobe Johnson, who led the team in steals last season, was out of the lineup due to an undisclosed injury he suffered on Monday. Despite his absence, the USC guards routinely deflected passes and turned steals into easy fast-break opportunities. The team outscored Bakersfield 21-9 off of turnovers.
“We got a lot of deflections,” Enfield said. “I was disappointed in our field goal percentage defense in the second half. I thought our guys were lax a little bit, and there were some uncharacteristic errors by some of our veterans. … It’s part of our defensive philosophy to deflect the ball, whether we block shots or steal the ball, and tonight we did a good job.”
In a game where Johnson was unavailable and Ellis shot 4-of-11 from the floor and 1-of-6 from three, the Trojans needed some surprise offensive performances. Those breakout games came from sophomore guard Oziyah Sellers and graduate forward DJ Rodman.
Rodman made his mark on the game early, draining back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the first half, ballooning the USC lead to 16. He finished with 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting and was 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Sellers was the biggest surprise of the night, contributing 16 of the Trojans’ 23 points off the bench. He was also one of the team’s most efficient scorers, shooting 6-of-9 from the floor and draining a pair of triples.
He was also the recipient of perhaps the nicest-looking play of the night. With 7:30 remaining in the game, Collier lobbed a pass from his own 3-point arc to under the Roadrunner basket. Without hesitation, sophomore forward Kijani Wright then dished the ball out to Sellers in the corner. Sellers faked senior guard Kaleb Higgins out of his shoes, took one dribble upward and drained a perfect baseline jump shot.
“It was nice to have D.J. and Oziyah Sellers step up and make shots because they are very good shooters and very capable,’’ Enfield said. “The reason Osiyah is playing more is because he’s much better defensively. He’s gained 15 pounds of muscle during the offseason and is a much better basketball player than he was last year. Tonight, he played very good defense and made some shots. We hope this gives him some confidence because we are very confident in him as a coaching staff.”
Redshirt senior forward Joshua Morgan was the fifth Trojan in double-figures, recording 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. With Johnson out of the starting five, junior forward Harrison Hornery took his place and led the team with five rebounds.
The win improves USC to 2-0 on the season. The Trojans will continue their three-game homestand on Tuesday night when they host UC Irvine at 8 p.m.