Saturday was his chance.
Without forward Josh Shipp in the lineup, it was up to point
guard Darren Collison to carry the burden.
And against crosstown rival USC, that’s exactly what he
did.
Collison led the Bruins with a career-high 17 points, and hit
three big 3-pointers as the Bruins rallied from a 10-point deficit
in the second half.
“Without Josh in the lineup, someone needed to fill his
shoes,” Collison said. “So I knew I had to be
aggressive and attack, and that’s what I did.”
Going into Saturday’s game, Collison’s role was to
be the Bruins’ main distributor and floor leader of the
offense.
But with leading scorer Arron Afflalo being double-teamed and
face-guarded for much of the game against the Trojans and with
Shipp out, Collison had to change his role.
Numerous times in the second half, the Bruins ran isolation
plays for Collison and he finished those plays with either
3-pointers or drives to the basket.
“Darren really lifted us,” coach Ben Howland said.
“He did a great job of making some plays.”
Collison, who was 1-4 for five points in the first half, knew
his shots would eventually go down.
“It was only a matter of time,” Collison said of his
second-half play. “We had missed a lot of open 3s in the
first half, but we knew we come back in the end.”
At the end of the second half, however, Collison almost turned
from the hero to the goat.
With the Bruins up three and under 30 seconds left, Collison
fouled the Trojans’ Nick Young on a 3-point basket that gave
the Trojans a one-point lead.
“I don’t think it was necessarily a great
call,” Collison said of the foul. “But that is just my
perspective.”
But Collison and the Bruins were relieved when Afflalo made the
game-winning shot to save Collison’s gaffe.
“If he (didn’t) make that shot, I would be feeling a
lot different right now,” Collison said. “But he did,
and I knew he would. Arron is our leader.”
On Saturday, a combination of Collison and Afflalo and a little
bit of luck was enough for the Bruins.
NEW ROLES: Sophomore Mike Roll made his first
start of the season and struggled, with three points on 1-of-6
shooting in 29 minutes.
In the second half, with Roll relatively ineffective against the
Trojans’ three-guard lineup, freshman Russell Westbrook took
over much of Roll’s minutes.
Westbrook had six points in just 16 minutes.
“I thought a lot of our guys stepped up today,”
Howland said. “Westbrook really attacked well against their
defense, and it was just an overall gutsy effort by our team. I
thought we showed a lot of heart out there tonight.”
SHIPP CHIMES IN: Sitting on the sidelines was a
difficult experience on Saturday for Shipp, especially considering
the festivities surrounding the game.
“It was the first game at the Galen Center, and I
definitely wanted to be part of this,” Shipp said.
“Their fans were energetic, and it was a hostile
atmosphere.
“Unfortunately, the injury kept me out.”
Shipp said he was proud of his teammates in the end.
“They really picked it up for me,” the redshirt
sophomore said. “(USC) wanted to come and knock us out, but
our guys did a great job of coming together and pulling it
out.”
DRIBBLERS: Although USC announced a sellout
crowd of 9,682 for Saturday’s game, the arena was not full to
capacity because nearly 500 USC students did not use their tickets
for the rivalry game. For the game, USC students were distributed
the tickets on a lottery basis. … USC PA announcer Petros
Papadakis used the names “Noodles” Nick Young, and
“Smilin” Gabriel Pruitt whenever he announced either
player’s name. … The glass window that displays a view of
the Los Angeles downtown skyline at the Galen Center was covered by
a curtain on Saturday, because Fox Sports didn’t want a glare
to disrupt filming.