On Super Bowl Eve, less than 10 miles from where the big game will be played, a different kind of mega-clash will take place Saturday when cross-town rivals No. 12 UCLA and No. 21 USC meet at Los Angeles in a game with Pac-12 Conference title implications.
Visiting UCLA (17-4, 9-3 Pac-12) fell from the conference lead last week with a pair of losses at Arizona and Arizona State. The Bruins responded Tuesday by carrying a double-digit lead through much of the second half to win at Stanford 79-70.
Following a 76-66 loss at Arizona on Thursday and an 87-84 triple-overtime defeat at Arizona State on Saturday, UCLA coach Mick Cronin lamented the Bruins’ shooting. They responded at Stanford with a 34-of-62 (54.8 percent) performance from the floor.
“Offensively, that’s as good as we’ve played in a while,” Cronin said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well again from (3-point range) the way we’re capable of, but we ran the floor and passed the ball better than we have in a while. We’ve got to continue to run the floor and pass the ball that way.”
UCLA shot 6 of 16 (37.5 percent) from beyond the arc at Stanford, a marked improvement from its previous three games when the team went 4 of 29, 3 of 14 and 5 of 22. The Bruins’ season average dipped to 32.3 percent from outside.
Johnny Juzang finished 2 of 6 from 3-point range at Stanford but attacked the rim effectively to notch an 8-of-10 night shooting inside the arc. His 23-point effort bumped the average of the Pac-12’s second-leading scorer to 18.1 points per game.
Quality field-goal attempts might be more difficult to find Saturday against a USC defense that has held opponents to just 41.4 percent shooting inside the 3-point line.
The Trojans (20-4, 9-4) held Arizona State last Thursday to 22-of-67 shooting (32.8 percent), including 3 of 21 (14.3 percent) from 3-point range, in a come-from-behind 58-53 victory. USC held a late lead at Arizona on Saturday but were outscored 18-3 down the stretch and fell 72-63.
USC had to rally on Tuesday in a 74-68 win over Pacific, a nonconference opponent that was added to replace a game canceled because of COVID-19 issues earlier in the season. The Trojans trailed by as many as 13 points early in the second half.
“Defensively in the first half, we gave them too many shots at the rim,” USC coach Andy Enfield said. “In the second half, we went zone and did a better job protecting the lane and the 3-point shots.”
Isaiah Mobley missed Tuesday’s matchup after coming away with a non-displaced nose fracture at Arizona. Enfield said Mobley, the Trojans’ leader in scoring (14.7 points) and rebounder (8.5) is “day-to-day.”
Freshmen Reese Dixon-Waters and Harrison Hornery played prominent roles Tuesday off the bench with nine points each. Added depth could be critical for USC against a UCLA lineup with four players averaging at least 11.2 points per game and a rotation that can go as deep as nine players.
The return of bruising guard Jaylen Clark from a concussion provides a boost off the Bruins’ bench.
“(Clark) brings a lot to the table for us, a lot of things that don’t show up in the stat sheet,” Cronin said.
–Field Level Media