This was definitely a game they played well enough to win and ultimately bad enough to lose. It came down to being behind by 1 with 24 seconds to play and then another chance at 3 down with 12 to play and they didn’t convert. UCLA was 11-2 at home and play well there. But USC did do some things well: They excelled on the boards 38-32 and particularly offensive oar's 14-7 getting second chance points. they forced 12 turnovers and scored 14 points of them. and they dominated the paint with those to the tune of 34 points to 22. Stewart had a great game with 20 points, Racocevic had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Metu scored 11 points and 12 rebounds .
So what went wrong…..plenty. USC had 11 point leads and 9 points leads in the two halves. UCLA never had a lead bigger than 3. But after the two major leads USC went cold….In the first half grabbing a 27-16 lead they failed to score for 4 minutes ion 0-5 shots. In the second half they failed to score 4:37 minutes with 0-4 shooting. Outside of the above Boatwright obviously still hurting, McLaughin an off shooting night and Usher on an off night hit a combined 9 points on 2-17 shooting. Yeah the defense could have been better but the offense was offensive. Being down 1 with 24 seconds to go Aaron (who played well otherwise) lofts up a tough angle shot for a miss. After FTs make it 3 points difference USC lofts up 2 more bad 3 point shots.
But one other factor was our beloved PAC12 refs…the situation: USC up 69-67. Racovich steals the ball goes for a layup, misses and gets the rebound to go up again and gets decked by UCLAs Olesinski. Raco on the ground gets stepped over by Olesinski who is a raw and rough player. He reaches out and holds the UCLA players leg. To me that’s a flagrant followed by 2 technicals. One on each player. USS has the 2 FTs a plus the ball and Olesinski gets ejected with 2 technical fouls (that pus the flagrant). Raco, upset misses 2 FTs and USC gets the ball…right? Nope Holliday shoots 2 FTs even though he wasn’t involved (how does that work?) and the 60% shooter is replaced by a 90% shooter AND UCLA gets the ball. Of course from that USC gets 0 points and UCLA gets the 2 FTs and Welsh (who is a USC killer gets a 3. Net difference was 5 points instead of 2 and USC lost a shot opportunity. Bad call. Oh well I'll be there and hope so will a sold out crowd in 3 weeks at Galen.
BTW USC dropped but 2 spots on the tracking RPI which would give them an 11th seed, with a chance to get a lot higher with the tough remaining schedule and P12 playoff.
So what went wrong…..plenty. USC had 11 point leads and 9 points leads in the two halves. UCLA never had a lead bigger than 3. But after the two major leads USC went cold….In the first half grabbing a 27-16 lead they failed to score for 4 minutes ion 0-5 shots. In the second half they failed to score 4:37 minutes with 0-4 shooting. Outside of the above Boatwright obviously still hurting, McLaughin an off shooting night and Usher on an off night hit a combined 9 points on 2-17 shooting. Yeah the defense could have been better but the offense was offensive. Being down 1 with 24 seconds to go Aaron (who played well otherwise) lofts up a tough angle shot for a miss. After FTs make it 3 points difference USC lofts up 2 more bad 3 point shots.
But one other factor was our beloved PAC12 refs…the situation: USC up 69-67. Racovich steals the ball goes for a layup, misses and gets the rebound to go up again and gets decked by UCLAs Olesinski. Raco on the ground gets stepped over by Olesinski who is a raw and rough player. He reaches out and holds the UCLA players leg. To me that’s a flagrant followed by 2 technicals. One on each player. USS has the 2 FTs a plus the ball and Olesinski gets ejected with 2 technical fouls (that pus the flagrant). Raco, upset misses 2 FTs and USC gets the ball…right? Nope Holliday shoots 2 FTs even though he wasn’t involved (how does that work?) and the 60% shooter is replaced by a 90% shooter AND UCLA gets the ball. Of course from that USC gets 0 points and UCLA gets the 2 FTs and Welsh (who is a USC killer gets a 3. Net difference was 5 points instead of 2 and USC lost a shot opportunity. Bad call. Oh well I'll be there and hope so will a sold out crowd in 3 weeks at Galen.
BTW USC dropped but 2 spots on the tracking RPI which would give them an 11th seed, with a chance to get a lot higher with the tough remaining schedule and P12 playoff.
