USC men’s basketball can’t keep pace with No. 6 UCLA in blowout loss

Opened in June of 1965, the Pauley Pavilion has seen more than its fair share of history: 23 Pac-12 title-winners, five Naismith Players of the Year and nine national champions. Yet, on Saturday night, the Bruins could have fallen on the wrong side of history had they lost their fifth straight game to the Trojans for the first time since they lost 42 in a row to their crosstown rivals from 1933-1942.

From the tip, the game emanated an aura of intensity. USC led by as many as five before something awakened in their sixth-ranked opponents. As if they could sense infamy enshrouding them, the Bruins responded to their deficit with unparalleled effort. Drawing from the energy of the sold-out Pavilion, the Bruins ended the half on an extended 28-11 run. They never looked back en route to a robust 102-70 victory.

Both teams did what they do best, but UCLA executed much better. The Bruins pressed, played fast and scored often. USC dunked, shot threes and forced turnovers. In the first 12 minutes, the two teams traded the lead four times. However, the Trojans lacked the firepower to recover from their crippling first-half finish.

“The problem was we couldn’t make a shot,” head coach Andy Enfield said. “You can’t beat this team when you shoot 31 percent from three and 33 percent from the field.”

USC (21-6, 8-6), tops in the Pac-12 in steals, scored 10 of its first 23 points off turnovers. Then, UCLA (24-3, 11-3), which leads the Pac-12 in assist-to-turnover ratio, stopped turning the ball over. The rest of the game, USC scored only four points off turnovers. UCLA, on the other hand, tallied 23 assists.

“Both team had 10 turnovers. We just could not make the shots especially to stem their runs,” Enfield added.

UCLA freshman Lonzo Ball, the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week, had a couple of early turnovers before righting the ship to finish with 15 points, 8 assists, and 8 rebounds. His backcourt counterpart, senior Bryce Alford, joined him in making 3-point shots from as deep as 25 feet. He added 26 points, six assists and no had turnovers. As a team, UCLA shot 50 percent (10-of-20) from 3-point range.

“Our offense kicked into gear because we got great defensive stops,” UCLA head coach Steve Alford said. “We played really well on the defensive end. We’re growing on that end of the court.”

While the Trojans stretched their defense to guard UCLA’s 3-point bombers, big men Thomas Welsh and TJ Leaf established supremacy in the paint. Welsh, the junior center, finished with a monstrous double-double — 16 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. His counterpart, Leaf, added 19 points and 8 rebounds. The duo squelched USC’s comeback hopes early in the second half after a series of second-chance putbacks.

“We could not get stops on defense,” sophomore Shaqquan Aaron said.

Those stops, he continued, usually lead to points when USC runs its signature transition offense.

With 10:42 to play, the Trojans pulled within 10 points, but they never shot well enough to keep up with the best offense in the nation. Freshman Jonah Mathews attributed UCLA’s pull-away to its superb shooting.

“We played hard, but [Bryce] Alford was making deep 3s and tough, contested shots,” Mathews said. “When that happens there is nothing you can really do about it. I feel like we competed; they just played harder than us.”

In their first match-up, Alford only made one 3-point shot. On Saturday, he made five.

With three minutes to play, the Trojans completely ran out of gas. UCLA, still feeding from the ecstatic crowd, went on an 11-0 run that included their 10th 3-point make of the night and an emphatic slam by Ball. The Bruins scored 56 points in the second half alone.

“It’s special,” Welsh said about playing with Bryce Alford on one of his hot nights.

Despite UCLA’s 32 point margin of victory, USC got to the line 19 more times than the Bruins. Because of their physicality, the Trojans were not phased by UCLA’s finesse. 

But to beat UCLA in a potential Pac-12 Tournament grudge match, Aaron said the Trojans must play with more intensity.

“Their guys can go on runs,” he said. “We need to run with them. We’re going to learn from our mistakes, watch film and come back playing harder.”