Live from Staples!
The crowd is still filtering in and O.J. Mayo is without a point in the first four minutes and the Bruins leading 6-4. In a minor upset, Tim Floyd still has his jacket on. Of course, Pete Carroll is here. Hail Caesar!
USC's playing much better than in the teams' last meeting at the Galen Center, especially Davon Jefferson. The Trojans lead 17-14 and are doing despite the fact Mayo's scored two points. But USC's energy level is much higher although the coaches' seem worried about giving up perimeter shots.
Mayo just forced a shot in the lane. So far he and Kevin Love are not big factors. UCLA's Luc Richard Mbah a Moute suffered a serious looking ankle injury and had to be helped off the court. A troublesome sign for USC is that Jefferson picked up his second foul. USC's up 24-20.
Meanwhile, former USC coach George Raveling is sitting courtside for the seventh straight game.
Quite a first half, as Keith Wilkinson hits 2 3-pointers and the Trojans lead 34-28. At Staples, they originally gave Darren Collison a 3-pointer at the buzzer but changed it to a 2-point basket. A lot more fans are here than at tipoff. USC's outrebounded UCLA 18-15.
Nightmare start for USC in second half. UCLA scores six straight points with a steal highlighting the run and then Taj Gibson is blocked twice on what looked like a sure basket for USC after Mayo stole a pass. Floyd is livid and working all three refs because he wanted a foul. And the jacket is off. Gibson loses control of the ball out of bounds and Floyd calls timeout. 34-34. It's gut check time in Staples.
Love follows with a basket and foul and the Bruins are on a 9-0 run to start the half. Gibson has not scored and just picked up his second foul on another three-point play for Love. It's now 12-0 on this run.
UCLA is on a 17-4 run to start the half and this is where USC has problems. Floyd looks at his bench but what answers lie there? He keeps the starters in. Jefferson and Mayo are scoreless through six minutes and while points are not the end all in judging efforts, this is the type of game where Mayo needs to pull USC through adversity. So far, he hasn't. There are 14 minutes left to do it.
Jefferson and Mayo are scoreless through 12 minutes and Floyd removes Mayo. Marcus Simmons, Angelo Johnson and Wilkinson are on the court. USC opened the half shooting 1 for 9. Where will the points come from? USC is still in it, trailing 50-45.
Stop the presses! With 4:10 left, Mayo scores his first points of the second half. Jefferson is still scoreless and gets his fourth foul on a call Floyd disputes. Kevin Love has no fouls through 36 minutes. There was a snafu at scorer's table preventing Daniel Hackett from checking in with 6:12 left. I'll get into it later.
Here comes Mayo. He hits a big 3 and then an impressive drive to cut it to 54-52 with less than two minutes left. USC's coaches are furious about a call that sends Darren Collison to the line. It's 55-52 in the final stretch. An errant pass by the Trojans hurts with 1:16 left.
What a finish. USC cuts it to 55-54 and has the ball at the end, but Mayo misses a 3-pointer and Hackett throws up an off-balance shot after getting the rebound. UCLA wins 57-54.
It might be unfair, but ultimately these are the moments to judge Mayo's ``greatness'' and this time, he came up short. He scored just seven points in the second half and Jefferson scored 0.
Reaction to follow.
This was my first look at ucla live. Their guard play is more polished than SCs. They are real quick and were able to get off clean mid range shots, which were the difference. Love had a great run for 9 points in the second half, but when SC shut him down, the Trojans were able to crawl back into it. But Love is the real deal.
Defense kept Troy within hailing distance, and a little run at the end almost did in ugly (I mean, ucla). Lewis had a couple of acrobatic shots, and O.J. had a nice 3 pointer and a nice drive, with Hackett hitting clutch free throws to pull within one.
I would not blame O.J. for the three point miss at the end (the odds of making that shot are only about 35% if not guarded, and the defender knew O.J. had to take that three).
Nice to see bruins' fans worried at the end. The Pac-10 tournament is a bit odd because there were WSU and Stanford fans in attendance and they did not have any passion for SC-ucla (understandably), and thus the crowd noise was diffused, and not concentrated. And there were many empty seats court side (because of WSU and Stanford having bought them and not showing up until after the SC-ugly game. And so enterprising young men, and not so young men were able to sneak down into the $500 seats).
More ugly (I mean, ucla) fans than SC, but I think over time Trojans will get it that we have a basketball program with the best arena.
Go SC in the tournament. This game will help them.
"It might be unfair, but ultimately these are the moments to judge Mayo's ``greatness'' and this time, he came up short."
Scott, you're right. That's unfair. OJ single-handedly brought USC back into that game at crunch time against the PAC 10's best defender and perhaps best defensive team, and he did it with some truly amazing shots. If anything, what we got a glimpse of is how truly great OJ is whenever he decides to take over a game. I guess in the end, though, Billy Packer's assessment is all that truly matters to you. 20+ points a game in the nation's best conference, breaking down the best defender in the league at crunch time in the PAC 10 tournament semifinals, shooting over 60% from 3 land in the last four games of the season when USC was making a run to the NCAA tournament, all that and more objective data should factor into your reporting on OJ Mayo and not just the opinion of an aging color commentator who has seen OJ Mayo play all of one game this season.