USC won the last Pac-12 men’s basketball regular-season game and did so against a top-10 team.
The USC Trojans came into the final game of the regular season with a chance to improve their record to 14-17, and 8-12 in Pac-12 games. All they had to do was beat the first-place team in the conference and the No. 5 team in the nation, the Arizona Wildcats. USC had surrendered the last six meetings to the Wildcats, including an 82-67 loss in Tucson back in January. This previous game was played without USC’s two leading scores and primary ball handlers, Boogie Ellis and Isaiah Collier.
USC got the upset victory on Saturday night. It was the first time the Trojans have beaten a team in the top five since a 2008 road victory at their crosstown rivals, the No. 4 UCLA Bruins, at Pauley Pavillion. Isaiah Collier had a solid game (16 points and five assists). D.J. Rodman also had another productive night, setting a season-high with 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting while grabbing 7 rebounds to lead the team in both categories. Rodman’s relentless motor and his near perfect shooting propelled the Trojans to a double-digit lead.
USC’s defense was the difference. The Men of Troy held Arizona’s talented offense, which boasts the second-highest points per game average in the country (90.4 ppg), in check. The Trojans were especially effective in limiting the production of Arizona’s talented backcourt trio of Kylan Boswell, Pelle Larsson, and Caleb Love, who managed to score only 12 points combined. Love, who is fourth in the conference in scoring with an average of 19.63 points per game, was held to just two points throughout the night.
Kobe Johnson, a junior guard for USC, had a standout performance, contributing 19 points, 4 assists, and 6 steals (23 steals in his last six games).
After the game Johnson explained USC’s plan on how to slow down Love and the high-scoring Arizona offense:
“Every time we play Arizona, we know it’s gonna be a physical, physical game, so we knew coming into it right away that we needed to be the more physical team. The game plan the whole week, so we did focus a lot on Caleb Love because we know how good of a player he is and how good he can be. So we tried to pressure him, trying to make them take some tough shots, which I think we did perfectly. So I think we all follow the game plan exactly how we should have and I think the results show for themselves,” Johnson said.
USC had a season-high 15 steals in the game, reaching double-digit steals for the ninth time this season. Arizona struggled to find a shooting rhythm against USC’s formidable defense, scoring only 65 points and shooting just 38.7% from the field, which is the Wildcats’ second-lowest shooting percentage and its low point total of the season.
Stat of the game: The Wildcats had 14 offensive rebounds — led by rebounding machine Oumar Ballo — but had only two second chance points on the night.
USC has won four of its last five games and five of its last seven to finish ninth in the Pac-12. They will face the Washington Huskies (17-14, 9-11), the No. 8 seed in the conference, on Wednesday, March 13, in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.
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