USC wastes Boogie Ellis’ career night in loss to Arizona

LOS ANGELES — It started as an offensive rebound off a missed free throw, something that will drive any coach crazy. But USC recovered well to defend the possession. Boogie Ellis poked the ball away from Arizona’s Cedric Henderson Jr., setting up a USC fast break.

But the ball bounced off of Tre White’s foot, and then Ellis’ hands. Arizona guard Kylan Boswell grabbed the loose ball and put up a jumper late in the shot clock. Swish.

It was just one of those nights for USC in an 87-81 loss to No. 8 Arizona in which little seemed to go the Trojans’ way.

No matter which way you looked at this game, USC (21-9 overall, 13-6 Pac-12) could not match up man for man with Arizona (25-5, 14-5). The Trojans’ traditional four-guard lineup did not stand up to the Wildcats’ frontcourt duo of Azoulas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo.

USC started the game with center Joshua Morgan dropped back under the rim, allowing the 7-foot Ballo to roam freely along the perimeter. White was responsible for the 6-11 Tubelis but had a five-inch disadvantage against the Pac-12 Player of the Year candidate. Even with Morgan back helping, White could do little to slow down Tubelis, who finished the game with 25 points and 10 rebounds.

“Their big guys are really big,” Coach Andy Enfield said. “We probably, if we play this team again, we have to figure something out.”

Then when USC went with a two-big lineup to try to compensate, it messed up USC’s spacing on offense. There were possessions in which Morgan and Vincent Iwuchukwu ran up the court, posted up on opposite sides of the key and waved their hands in rhythm together for an in-bound pass as the USC ball handler stared in at the occupied paint.

“Spacing’s kind of a little bit different,” Ellis said. “But we all gotta adjust.”

This was especially problematic on a night when Ellis was the only reliable Trojan on offense. He scored 11 of USC’s first 16 points, zig-zagging through defenders to the rim. Enfield took him out for a 35-second breather, only to realize he lost his entire offense with the senior guard on the bench.

But Enfield had no choice but to pull Ellis with two minutes left in the first half when the guard picked up his third foul, just as guard Kobe Johnson had done seven minutes earlier.

With guard Drew Peterson having one of his off nights, shooting 0 for 4 in the first half, Arizona was able to take a 12-point lead at halftime that felt far more comfortable, benefitting from 24 points off turnovers and offensive rebounds.

Peterson actually started the second half on the bench, with a brace around his lower back as he watched. He checked back in a few minutes into the period and hit a 3-pointer to make it a seven-point game.

But that was as close as USC would get as Arizona answered each USC push with one of its nine 3-pointers. Until an Ellis 3-pointer with 36 seconds left got USC within five. By that time, though, USC was out of time as “U of A” chants rained down and Ellis’ career-high 35 points fell by the wayside.

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Enfield said Peterson has been dealing with a tight back, and it’s unclear if that injury will linger into the postseason.

USC got one positive development on Thursday. With Arizona State’s loss to UCLA, the Trojans were locked into the No. 3 seed for next week’s Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.

Except, that sets up the likelihood of a rematch with second-seeded Arizona in the conference semifinals next week.

Given these aforementioned matchup issues, it’s hard not to wonder if USC would have been better off as the fourth seed with a potential semifinal matchup against UCLA, a team the Trojans have competed with and beaten.

“I feel like we’re going to see these guys again,” Ellis said of Arizona. “That was a great team, that was a No. 8 team in the country. But I feel like we can beat them.”