Bruins bounce Trojans despite Boogie's big night

USC is out of the Pac-12 Conference Tournament at the hands of crosstown rival UCLA as the Bruins beat the Trojans 69-59 Friday night in the second semifinal game. The Trojans will now turn their attention to Sunday, when they’ll learn their fate regarding seeding for the NCAA Tournament. USC is projected as a No. 7 seed lately.

A win against the Bruins and Arizona in the tournament final likely would have bumped the Trojans up a seed line. But USC couldn’t solve the UCLA puzzle on Friday night.

Boogie Ellis gave it his best shot. He led all scorers with 27 points and hit five three-pointers, to go with four rebounds. But he had very little help on the offensive end. Just five Trojans scored against the Bruins.

Drew Peterson was the only other Trojan who scored in double figures. He finished with 11 points. Isaiah Mobley scored nine points on 11 shots from the floor, missing all four three-point attempts. Kobe Johnson scored seven points and Chevez Goodwin had five.

USC shot just 31% from inside the arc in the first half as the Bruins took a 36-28 lead into halftime.

The Trojans shot much better in the second half, hitting 50% of their shots. But the Bruins were even better. UCLA shot 54.5% from the floor in the second half.

UCLA took a four-point lead with 6:36 left in the first half and that was it. USC was never able to cut deeper into the lead than that. The Trojans had it at four again, 42-38, with 14:38 left in the game. But UCLA ran off seven-straight points and led by at least six points the rest of the game.

UCLA Hits Its Shots

UCLA just found a way to make shots against USC. Four Bruins scored in double-figures. Jaime Jaquez Jr. led the way with 19 points. Jules Bernard had 15, Tyger Campbell had 14 and Johnny Juzang had 10.

USC finally had a game with fewer than 10 turnovers, which hadn’t happened in any of the past seven times out. But the Trojans ran into another situation where they weren’t enforcers on defense. After holding its first 12 opponents to less than 40% shooting from the floor, a number of Pac-12 teams went over that mark. A few did so easily, including Arizona at 55.6% and UCLA at 45.6% to close out the regular season.

When USC beat UCLA earlier this season, the Trojans held the Bruins to 30% shooting for the game and 25% shooting in the second half.

Missing Reese Dixon-Waters

USC played without Reese Dixon-Waters, who sat out while nursing a groin injury. Dixon-Waters suffered the injury in practice earlier in the week. He felt good enough to play Thursday night against Washington. But he wasn’t able to give it a go against the Bruins.

It’s been obvious how much Dixon-Waters’ confidence has grown over the second half of the season, so that was a big loss for the Trojans. If he can return for USC’s NCAA Tournament run, that will be a boost.

A Boogie Bump

Losing to UCLA in the Pac-12 Tournament is a difficult way to end things. And now the Trojans will head into the NCAA Tournament having lost fairly decisively in three of its past four games, including to the two good teams its played in that stretch.

But special mention should be made of the performance from Boogie Ellis. He carried the Trojans on his back in this game. UCLA had absolutely no answer for him offensively. The problem for the Trojans was that USC could find no answer other than him. But if Ellis plays with that same kind of fire and effectiveness in the tournament, the Trojans will be a tough out.