Jackson Shelstad, Kwame Evans Jr. carry Oregon past USC in Pac-12 opener

Few teams in all of college basketball entered this season with a more star-studded roster than the USC Trojans. Headlined by five-star signees Isaiah Collier and Bronny James, the Trojans feature no shortage of name-brand talent.

On Thursday, though, it was Oregon’s pair of blue-chip freshmen who stole the show.

Kwame Evans Jr. racked up a career-high 22 points, and Jackson Shelstad scored a career-high 21 to lead the Ducks to an 82-74 win over the Trojans at Matthew Knight Arena to open Pac-12 play.

Oregon, which ran its lead up to 20 at one point, survived a second-half onslaught from the Trojans to open conference play with a marquee win. The Ducks were without four rotation players — including starting big men N’Faly Dante and Nate Bittle — but leaned heavily on their duo of talented freshmen.

“They played really good. They played really hard,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “(Evans’) activity was really good; 7-for-7 from the line. (Shelstad) was 5-for-7 down the stretch there. They played really well, and on a night we needed them to.”

Shelstad knocked down three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give Oregon an early 11-2 lead and bring that Matthew Knight Arena crowd to life. USC coach Andy Enfield immediately called a timeout, but the Ducks buckled down and forced a shot-clock violation.

Although that sequence came less than four minutes into the game, it set the tone for the remainder of the half.

USC failed to find its offensive rhythm at any point during the first period, and Oregon punished the Trojans for a flurry of sloppy turnovers.

Late in the first half, Shelstad took over. The freshman guard relentlessly attacked the paint and buried three pull-up jumpers from the right elbow in a span of six minutes — including one at the buzzer that sent the Ducks into halftime with a 45-25 lead.

However, USC woke up in the second half and flipped the script.

The Trojans came out of the break on a 12-3 run and capitalized on several sloppy Oregon mistakes. They cut the Ducks’ lead to 45-39 at one point before Evans Jr. stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer.

“I think we might have come out too comfortable with that first-half lead,” Shelstad said. “(USC) came out with a ton of energy. They knew they needed that run. They hit shots, they got offensive rebounds, they got open looks. So, that’s just something we’ve gotta work on; coming out like we did in the first half.”

From there, Oregon stabilized on the offensive end of the floor. But they suffered a significant blow when starting big man Mahamadou Diawara picked up his third foul with 16 minutes to go. From there, the Ducks were forced to roll with a four-guard lineup that featured Evans, a 6-foot-9 forward, as the de facto center.

The Trojans exploited their size advantage and scored 16 points in the paint during the first 10 minutes of the second half.

But the Ducks managed to keep pace. They led 75-65 with 2:51 to go and withstood a tenacious USC full-court press in the final minutes.

USC cut the lead to 76-69 with 1:15 remaining on a Collier layup and cut it to 78-74 with 0:39 to go after an Ellis three-pointer.

Oregon went 8-for-10 from the free throw line throughout the final two minutes, though, to close out the game. Shelstad went 5-for-7 during that timespan.

“I just told him to go get the ball and be really strong with it, because they’re gonna put their hand all over you,” Altman said of Shelstad. “For the most part, I thought he did a good job of that. I wanted them to foul him because he’s a good free-throw shooter.

“I wanted the ball in his hands.”

The Ducks will look have an opportunity to compete a sweep the Los Angeles schools this weekend when they host UCLA at Matthew Knight Arena. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. PT.