Injuries have hampered Southern California during the four-game losing streak it carries into Saturday, but UCLA coach Mick Cronin anticipates facing a previously sidelined “Bruin killer” when his team visits the crosstown-rival Trojans in Los Angeles.
“Their injuries are well-documented, (but) I would fully expect Boogie Ellis will play,” Cronin said during his Thursday media availability. “The basket gets real big when he sees the four letters (UCLA) playing against him.”
Ellis, who is averaging a team-high 18.7 points per game this season, scored 31 points the last time he faced UCLA a season ago. He is listed as day-to-day due to a hamstring injury that has kept him out of the last three contests.
Southern California (8-11, 2-6 Pac-12) has also been without second-leading scorer Isaiah Collier (15.4 ppg) because of a hand injury sustained in the second half of the Trojans’ first loss in their current skid. Collier is out until at least mid-February.
The Jan. 10 defeat vs. Washington State was USC’s only home game in the current slide. The 72-64 final score was also the closest margin, followed by losses of 68-58 on Jan. 13 at Colorado and 82-67 last week at both Arizona and Arizona State.
UCLA (8-11, 3-5) rebounded from its worst loss in 27 years — a 90-44 rout on Jan. 11 at Utah — with its first consecutive wins in more than two months. The Bruins beat Washington 73-61 at home on Jan. 14, then handed Arizona State its only home loss of the season on Jan. 17, rallying from 15 points down to win 68-66.
Roles were reversed in a 77-71 loss at Arizona last Saturday when UCLA squandered a 19-point lead. Freshman Sebastian Mack, the Bruins’ leading scorer for the season at 13.9 points per game, finished with 21 at Arizona.
Second-half struggles similar to UCLA’s last weekend have vexed USC throughout its losing skid. The Trojans have been outscored after intermission in all four games, including a 44-21 second half at Colorado and a 17-2 run surrendered late at Arizona State.
“We gotta come out and start the second half how we start games,” Trojans guard Kobe Johnson told the Los Angeles Times. “We gotta come out and bring that energy, and I think this past few games, over the course of the season, when we built a lead, we kind of let off the gas.”
–Field Level Media