With its season on the line, No. 9 seed USC men’s basketball battled hard for a win against No. 1-seeded Arizona in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals. Despite its efforts, USC came up short to the Wildcats 70-49 before a sea of Arizona fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The two teams met again Thursday in a rematch of last Saturday’s game, when USC handed the 2023-24 Pac-12 regular season champions an unexpected loss at Galen Center, 78-65.
This time, the two squads faced off on a much bigger stage with much bigger stakes – the Pac-12 quarterfinals.
Both squads raced to a hot start in Vegas, each team fighting to establish their offense early. Arizona senior forward Keshad Johnson opened the scoring with a jumper off a USC turnover. Graduate forward DJ Rodman responded for the Trojans on the next possession, driving to the basket for two.
The synergy of fast-paced play and exhilarated fans electrified the arena environment. The traveling Wildcat pack chanted “U of A,” to which the small number of Trojan fans in attendance responded with some noise of their own.
The Trojans kept the game close early on, staying within four points of the Wildcats for the first five minutes of the game. Star fifth-year guard Boogie Ellis, freshman guard Isaiah Collier and Rodman each had early steals, while redshirt senior forward Joshua Morgan had a block of his own, preventing Arizona from taking control of the game and establishing a rhythm.
Although the Wildcats have averaged 42.5 points in the first half this season, the Trojans held them to just 28 first-half points. “First half, our defense was outstanding,” USC head coach Andy Enfield said. “[We] really made it tough on Arizona.”
Be that as it may, USC’s offense couldn’t capitalize on its defensive success. The Trojans failed to score for the final 5:49 of the first period.
“A lot of those shots that went in last Saturday just didn’t fall for us today,” Enfield said. “It’s hard when your leading scorers, especially Boogie, had a tough shooting night. We just didn’t convert when we had open looks.”
Ellis had just six points in the first half and was 2-for-10 from the field. He did not score for the remainder of the game and fouled out with 7:25 to play in likely the final game of his college career.
The Trojans’ lackluster offense allowed Arizona to find some comfort offensively and create separation going into the half — the Wildcats led 28-16 after 20 minutes.
“We were able to get stops, stops, stops and then kind of made a little run at the end of the first half to get a little separation,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said.
The Trojans came out swinging in the second half but were burdened by foul trouble early.
Overall, the Wildcats had 18 appearances at the free-throw line to USC’s six. On the other end, missed free throws and turnovers prevented USC from closing the scoring gap, while Arizona’s offense started finding more consistent routes to the basket.
Even when shots started to fall for the Trojans, their defense just couldn’t stop the bleeding. Freshman guard KJ Lewis led the Wildcat charge with 15 points and six rebounds. For the Trojans, junior guard Kobe Johnson contributed a team-high 14 points and eight rebounds.
When the Trojans faced the Wildcats just five days ago, they limited Arizona star senior guard Caleb Love to a mere two points. The USC defense on display today was less effective against Love, allowing him to score 11.
The opposite could be said of Arizona’s defense, which held Rodman to just six points in this quarterfinal matchup. Rodman scored a season-high 19 points against the Wildcats on Saturday.
“You’re going to think this is crazy, we didn’t do one thing differently,” Lloyd said. “We just did it better. That’s what it came down to. We just did it better.”
Arizona has never lost back-to-back games in its three seasons under Lloyd’s leadership.
The result of Thursday’s quarterfinal game put an end to a tumultuous, injury-riddled season for USC, barring a bid to the NIT or CBI tournaments. Reflecting on the season as a whole, Enfield expressed pride in the resilience of his players, who missed a combined 58 games throughout the season due to injury.
“This team has improved dramatically from the beginning of the season, especially with guys in and out of the lineup all season,” he said. “And for them to stick together and really compete the last month, they’ve done a great job.”
Rodman echoed his coach’s sentiments about the team’s health this season, noting, “The most frustrating part is just not being healthy the majority of this season. Not necessarily not winning, because if we’re healthy, we win.”
With this win, Arizona advances to the semifinals and will play the No. 4-seeded Oregon Ducks tomorrow at 5 p.m.