No. 16 USC routed by No. 2 Arizona, failing first March test

The Trojans see their six-game winning streak come to a lopsided end, as the Wildcats take control early and clinch the Pac-12 regular-season title with a totally dominating 91-71 win

Adam Grosbard (OC Register)  —  LOS ANGELES — As it built the best regular-season win total in program history, USC made a habit of winning games by dragging opponents into slugfests with its defense. The uglier, the better.

Tuesday night’s game against No. 2 Arizona was certainly ugly, but not in the way the Trojans wanted to see.

Through 13 minutes, Arizona was on a 100-point pace. If that wasn’t enough to underscore how little control USC had over the game, the Wildcats underscored it with a three-possession sequence starting with five minutes left in the first half.

First, Benedict Mathurin turned a steal into a half-court lob to Dalen Terry for a two-handed dunk. After a USC miss, the Wildcats needed four seconds after the defensive rebound for a second straight Terry dunk. USC head coach Andy Enfield called a timeout to stop the bleeding, but Wildcats guard Justin Kier promptly intercepted a Drew Peterson pass and took it the distance for a vicious one-handed tomahawk dunk.

There were still some 24-odd minutes left to play, but it was the icing of a 91-71 loss for No. 16 USC (25-5 overall, 14-5 Pac-12) as the Wildcats (26-3, 16-2) clinched the Pac-12 regular-season title.

After their first four losses came by a combined 28 points, the Trojans suffered their first true blowout on Tuesday. They allowed Arizona to shoot 55.6% overall, drop 44 points in the paint, and score 19 off USC’s 12 turnovers.

Maybe on USC’s best offensive night, it would have been able to keep pace, but this was not that night. Boogie Ellis needed eight attempts before he had his first field goal. Isaiah Mobley and Drew Peterson were a combined 5-for-23 from the floor while the team made just 22.2% of its 3-pointers.

At first, USC came out with the right energy, likely fueled by the sold-out Galen Center crowd. The Wildcats scored five quick points, but USC had answers, from an acrobatic one-handed putback by Isaiah Mobley to a half-court entry pass from Ethan Anderson to Chevez Goodwin for a dunk.

But that’s pretty much where the highlights stopped for USC.

Arizona made seven of its first 10 shots, going 3 for 4 from 3-point range. Back-to-back 3-pointers forced Enfield to burn a timeout before the media break. He tried to combat the Wildcat offense by bringing some length in off the bench.

But a thunderous Christian Koloko dunk over the 6-foot-11 Joshua Morgan made it a 14-2 run for Arizona, and there was little USC could do to stop the Wildcats from there as the lead grew as large as 30 points in the second half.

USC was able to get back as close as 16 in the second half with a full-court press slowing the Wildcats down. But a couple of Arizona jumpers sent fans, including head football coach Lincoln Riley, heading to the exits with three minutes to play. As the clock ticked down, “U of A” chants broke out.

ocregister.com

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