It was a sold-out crowd. UCLA students lined up the night before to get in the game. The Bruins had won six of their last seven games and were sitting pretty at third in the Pac-12 conference. 

Although all signs pointed to the Trojans’ (11-16, 5-11 Pac-12) loss on Saturday, they stormed out and broke the Bruins’ (14-13, 9-7) hearts 62-56. 

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It was a very sloppy game on both ends of the floor where it seemed each team had chances to run away with a win. 

Thanks to a quick 17 points from fifth-year guard Boogie Ellis, the Trojans swiftly got out to a 25-14 lead in the first 12 minutes of the first half. Ellis basically got any shot he wanted in the first half, making driving layups and pulling up deep from three. This was one of his first games back from a hamstring injury where he actually felt 100%.

“I couldn’t beat anybody off the dribble for a long time, it was very frustrating for me. But you know, I just stuck with it,” said Ellis in a postgame interview. “I’m glad that I’m back to myself and back to continuing to play well.” 

After a cold shooting night for the Bruins, they fought back and gave the crowd of 13,659 fans something to cheer for. With roughly six minutes remaining in the first half, the Trojans were up 33-19 and looking to sustain momentum heading into the locker room, but the Bruins had other plans.

With USC’s bigs in foul trouble, a floater from sophomore forward Adem Bona started the run and the Bruins took off. UCLA ended the first half on a 15-1 run to tie the game at 34 apiece at halftime. 

Although the Trojans were in foul trouble the entire game, with sophomore forward Vincent Iwuchukwu fouling out and redshirt senior forward Joshua Morgan picking up four fouls, Head Coach Andy Enfield said he was proud of their presence in Saturday’s game.

“Our bigs did not play well at all [in their last game against UCLA]. They couldn’t rebound,” Enfield said. “Tonight, I think they made their mind up that enough was enough, and they played as hard as they could.”   

In a game of runs, the Bruins’ last laugh came at this point in the game, with the last part of the first half looking like the only time they had a chance. 

“It’s basketball. Everybody is going to make their runs,” Ellis said. “You just got to stay calm. They were going to make their run, we had to make a run … as a leader just telling them we got to get good shots and take advantage of mismatches.”

The second half of the matchup was all USC.

The Trojans scored a quick eight straight points coming out of halftime and they never looked back. UCLA didn’t score its first points of the second half until freshman center Aday Mara made a free throw with 13:45 left in the game. Its disastrous start to the second half was highlighted by five turnovers and shooting a terrible 0-9 from the field in the first minutes of the second half.

Junior guard Kobe Johnson stepped up in a big way for the Trojans, though the stat sheet might not explicitly show it. Only scoring 10 points with three rebounds and two assists, he made some clutch shots and timely steals to keep the game in the Trojans’ hands. 

With UCLA finally taking the lid off the basket and reducing its deficit to only seven points, Johnson turned the tide in the Trojans favor, where he stole the ball from Mara and slammed it home with a little over four minutes left in the game. 

“[Johnson] did a lot last year for us. This year, he’s missed a couple of those opportunities, but he played within himself on offense,” Enfield said. “We forced 12 steals tonight, [Johnson] was a big factor in that. I thought he was outstanding all night long defensively. He didn’t gamble, he was in his positions, he got deflections.”

Johnson hit a three-pointer with 2:55 left. And by then, it was too late for UCLA to make a comeback.

The Bruins’ downfall was the play of sophomore guard Dylan Andrews. He revitalized his season with a 20-point outburst against the Trojans last time around at Galen Center. Continuing his hot streak, he had scored 14.8 points per game in their last five games, but he came up with a donut in this contest. He was 0-7 from the field while missing all four of his 3-point attempts and committing five turnovers. 

Although it was arguably the best win of the season for the Trojans, they are still leaving a bunch of points on the floor with missed free throws. USC shot a mere 10-20 from the line in this game; however, it made the ones that counted. Freshman forward Arrinten Page and Bona got into a bit of a scuffle and were assessed for double technical fouls in the second half. Page stepped to the line and sank two free throws staring at the sea of blue in the student section. 

“[Page] made those two big free throws in the second half and he was on the line by himself,” Enfield said. “I thought it was pretty cool to see an 18-year-old there at Pauley Pavilion about to do that in the second half with numerous points.” 

The Trojans won for the first time at Pauley Pavilion since 2021. With this win away from home and the loss against UCLA at Galen Center, this is the first time since the 2012-13 season that the home team lost both regular season games.

USC will now look to carry this win into the Washington schools to build up momentum for the upcoming Pac-12 tournament. It will be the Trojans’ only shot to qualify for the NCAA tournament.