The UCLA Bruins exposed the shortcomings of the USC Trojans with a 65-50 victory on Saturday at the Galen Center. The loss marks a five-game skid for the Trojans.
Bruins sophomore Dylan Andrews led all scorers with 20 points and four assists. He was one of three UCLA players that scored in the double digits.
“I haven’t really shot the ball too good these last couple games so I have to stay confident,” Andrews said. “My teammates always telling me “we trust you,” it just felt good seeing the ball go into the basket.”
Andrews is a native of Gardena who attended the Windward School and AZ Compass Prep School. He was ranked No. 40 in his high school class and played for the Compton Magic AAU basketball program.
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Sophomore forward Adem Bona secured a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“They had size, they started the game with two bigs and we were focused on rebounding,” Bona said. “We knew that was gonna be an advantage for us if we could win the rebounding battle.”
This is the 11th contest this season where the Bruins held a team to under 65 points. Offensive rebounding was a key strength; in the first five regulated minutes of the game, UCLA made five boards on offense. This ultimately led the Bruins to 17 second chance points; the Trojans only had four.
With 9:42 left in the first half, USC junior guard Kobe Johnson hit a three-point shot to ignite a seven-point run. That was followed up by an offensive drought that lasted for four regulated minutes.
As they kept the ball in their hands, the Bruins overcame zone defense and double teams by the Trojans. UCLA head coach Mick Cronin noted how freshmen forward Devin Williams and center Aday Mara came off the bench and “changed the rhythm of the game.”
“They got a couple put backs,” Cronin said. “[USC does] some things with their zone where they go man, it takes a while to get comfortable with that and they do it late in the possession.”
The Trojans had high moments on defense; grad student forward DJ Rodman and freshman guard Bronny James blocked shots in the early minutes. USC racked up seven blocks while UCLA had three.
“I feel like we’re doing a great job defensively, we’re holding teams to 35 percent from the field,” said USC senior guard Boogie Ellis. “We just got to figure it out offensively.”
All except one player scored for the Trojans, sophomore guard Oziyah Sellers led USC with 10 points off the bench.
Trojans star guard Isaiah Collier has been sidelined with a hand injury throughout January. Ellis mentioned how the team has to find uncontested shots and move the ball.
“Other guys got to step up. I feel like [Sellers] does a good job in the paint, he draws a lot of attention,” Ellis said. “At the end of the day, we just got to make shots.”
UCLA and USC will be back in action on February 1 at 7:30pm with the Bruins battling the Oregon State Beavers and the Trojans taking on the Oregon Ducks.
