Isaiah Collier has 13 points, seven assists and no turnovers, Boogie Ellis has 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and the Trojans hold off the Golden Bears, 82-74
Luca Evans (OC Register) — LOS ANGELES — This was a spark that could start a fire, a spark loud enough to ignite a sleepy post-New Years’ crowd at the Galen Center, flying from the fingertips of a racing Isaiah Collier.
Well, racing Isaiah Collier is redundant, really, because it’s simply what he does. The USC freshman switches gears faster than most players in the country, a truly electric talent; but talent doesn’t help your team win, as head coach Andy Enfield has said, if it’s inefficient talent. And it had been largely inefficient for a month, a teenager still figuring out the collegiate game, that gear-shift stuck somewhere between sport and eco mode as turnovers mounted and drives to the rim stalled.
But in an 82-74 victory over Cal on Wednesday night, on the heels of a five-losses-in-six-games stretch, Collier seemed to find a true balance between power and poise. He spun through the paint like a whirling dervish, kicking passes out to shooters, nary a bad read coming from improved vision. And when he hurtled down the court in the middle of the first half off a turnover, fellow freshman Bronny James creeping alongside him in a two-on-one, he let a pass fly with calculated intentions.
James soared, caught it and dunked.
Enfield didn’t mince words, postgame – he was tired, the coach said, of seeing turnovers with no ball movement. With no player movement. It was a point of emphasis in recent practices, after months of unkempt offensive basketball, to clean up and generate more flow.
“We’re at the point now – you keep turning the ball over, you take tough shots, you don’t move yourself, player movement, you just come out,” Enfield said. “And sit on the bench for a while.”
They swarmed in transition and hummed in the halfcourt. Late in the first half, after a James bucket, Collier leaked out for an and-one bully of a finish through contact, and seconds later a James trap forced a turnover that ended in an Ellis dunk. Off-ball screens into handoffs got Collier and other perimeter guards going downhill; it seemed to free Collier of self-inflicted mental shackles. He finished with seven assists and no turnovers, and fed shooters like DJ Rodman (a timely 11 points and 3-for-6 shooting from 3-point range) and Harrison Hornery (2 for 3 from behind the arc after a brutal start) for wide-open looks from outside.
“Once I saw the first one go through … I did feel the weight come off my shoulders,” Johnson said, “and I just had the confidence from there on out.”
USC’s perimeter defense slumped in the second half, a variety of Golden Bears shooters draining confoundingly wide-open spot-ups. And the goodwill built through 35 minutes evaporated late, as Cal (4-10, 0-3) broke into an aggressive trap defense that completely slowed USC’s attack, generating a sloppy turnover by Rodman and a finish on the other end to cut USC’s lead to five points with two minutes left. But it was that same improved flow that all but clinched the win, Ellis weaving through traffic with the shot clock winding and finding a rolling Joshua Morgan on the bounce for a dunk to extend a lead Cal would never touch.
Jaylon Tyson’s 3-pointer cut the Bears’ deficit to 78-74 with 29 seconds left, but he missed a 3-point attempt with 16 seconds to go and Ellis came up with the rebound.
James came up with a defensive rebound with 2.7 seconds remaining, got fouled and made both free throws to seal the win. He didn’t speak to reporters afterward.
“He’s starting to be more confident as a player and he’s starting to play his game,” Johnson said. “When he first got back he was on a minute restriction and he was kind of antsy about what to do, but now he’s starting to get into his groove.”
