As the final seconds ticked off of the game clock, USC’s O.J. Mayo dribbled circles around the UCLA men’s basketball team, weaving his way back and forth across the court. The Bruin defenders looked on, not bothering to foul Mayo, because the outcome of their game was already decided.
As the clock in Pauley Pavilion reached zero, he hurled the ball toward the rafters. Daniel Hackett leaped into Mayo’s arms, and the rest of the Trojans mobbed their two teammates at center court.
The Bruins could only look on and shake their heads as a game they had a chance to win was taken from them. Their undefeated conference record went with it.
UCLA (16-2, 4-1 Pac-10) lost to USC (11-6, 2-3 Pac-10) on Saturday afternoon, snapping the Bruins’ three-game winning streak against their crosstown rivals. The loss dropped UCLA from fourth to eighth in the Associated Press Top-25 poll released Monday.
“The key for us (was) we were way too emotional,” coach Ben Howland said. “We were so caught up; our emotions took over. We made a number of bad choices, bad decisions, probably because we were playing our crosstown rival. … I can’t remember us being like that the last few years.”
True to Howland’s words, the Bruins played one of their most uneven games in recent memory. They took 20 more shots than the Trojans, but made six fewer. They dominated the Trojans on the offensive glass, finishing with 25 offensive rebounds, but were outscored in the paint 44 to 22. And they had a six-point lead with just over seven minutes to play but still lost by nine.
Interior defense was one of the Bruins’ most glaring shortcomings. USC freshman Davon Jefferson scored the game’s first points on a dunk less than 30 seconds into the game and went on to finish with a career-high 25 points and nine rebounds. The rest of the Trojans frequently got open for easy layups and uncontested jumpers, and USC shot 60.9 percent from the field and outscored UCLA in fast break points 14 to 4.
“They just got easy buckets around the hoop,” said freshman Kevin Love, who finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds. “They hurt us in transition, and they just got open looks and knocked them down. Really, when you have an open shot, you’re supposed to knock it down. And that’s just what they did.”
The Bruins, for their part, often seemed too impatient offensively and played into the Trojans’ transition game by shooting too many ill-advised jumpers. USC also used a combination of defenses, alternating between man-to-man and the triangle-and-two defense, which is a hybrid defense in which two players play man-to-man while the other three play zone. The result seemed to frustrate UCLA.
“They did a good job of switching up the defense,” junior guard Darren Collison said. “Their defense was really effective, and most importantly they took some effective shots.”
Despite the Bruins’ struggles, the game was still close throughout. UCLA led by one at halftime, until USC jumped ahead quickly and held a 44-37 lead five minutes into the second half.
But the Bruins went on a run of their own to build a small lead. With 7:21 to play, Kevin Love made a 3-point shot over the head of Mayo ““ one of the few times when the two highly touted freshman went head to head ““ to give the Bruins a 57-51 cushion. But the Bruins’ shooting went cold, and the Trojans scored a quick layup and a pair of dunks to tie the game.
“We just didn’t seize the opportunity,” Howland said. “Give them credit, they fought right back. … Every time we made a little run, they answered.”
The two teams mostly traded baskets after that and went into the final three minutes knotted at 60. But from that point on, UCLA’s only points came on one free throw by Josh Shipp and one jumper by Collison.
Meanwhile, Jefferson went to work. With the exception of a layup by Daniel Hackett, Jefferson handled all of the scoring down the stretch for the Trojans, pouring in 10 points over those last three minutes with a combination of free throws, short jumpers and a dunk with 30 seconds left that gave the game a neat ““ if painful, for the Bruins ““ kind of symmetry.
“(Now) we know what a loss feels like … in our conference,” Love said. “It being USC, we’re going to come out with a lot more fire (in the future). This is going to have to be another stepping stone for us, and we’re going to have to get better from it.”