UC Irvine takes advantage of short-handed USC for upset win – Daily News

LOS ANGELES — The USC men’s basketball team certainly felt Boogie Ellis’ absence.

The senior guard missed Tuesday night’s game against UC Irvine with a right ankle sprain, and what persisted was a Trojans’ offense that lacked flow and direction at any time other than when the ball found freshman Isaiah Collier’s hands.

Collier led the Trojans (2-1) with 23 points, but it wasn’t enough as they dropped their first game of the season to UC Irvine, 70-60.

Justin Hohn had a team-high 25 points for UCI (2-1), Bent Leuchten added 19 and Devin Tillis buried a key 3-pointer with 37.4 seconds remaining, but it was UCI’s ability to engulf Collier on his drives that disrupted the flow of the Trojans’ offense and allowed the Anteaters to score in transition.

Without a running mate to alleviate the pressure, the negative flashes that had stamped the slightest blemishes on Collier’s coming out party during blowout wins against Kansas State and Cal State Bakersfield, showed themselves in his 1-to-7 assist-to-turnover ratio.

“The nice thing about Isaiah is that he has two experienced guards with him – Boogie Ellis and Kobe Johnson,” USC coach Andy Enfield said. “We can’t rely on him to have that much responsibility for playmaking like he did tonight.”

After Collier penetrated the UCI defense with ease to score the first six points of the night, the Anteaters switched up their sets, throwing multiple looks at the highly touted freshman.

First, they employed a soft full-court zone, which did little to prevent the Trojans from bringing the ball up the court, but it taxed Collier, nullifying his penetration, and at times, prevented him from receiving an inbounds pass, entirely.

In the second half, UCI scaled back, understanding not much would deter Collier from getting in the lane, instead swarming him when he inevitably got there.

“We were really working to make him play in a crowd in the scoring area,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “I thought my big guys – Bent Leuchten, Dean Keeler – played well.”

USC got within 61-60 with 2:49 remaining on Harrison Hornery’s free throws before the Anteaters scored the final nine points. Fittingly, as the Trojans trailed 66-60 with 37 seconds remaining, that attention Collier drew forced the ball to be swung away from him. It fell into the corner to D.J. Rodman, who passed up an open look instead putting Hornery in a disadvantageous position with the shot clock winding down.

“Just a breakdown,” Hornery said about the possession that resulted in his untimely miss.

It was a play similar to so many of the ones USC initiated that showed the importance of its fifth-year leader, Ellis, and Johnson – who missed his second game in a row with a knee injury.

A crucial spot in which Collier failed to get a touch.

For better or worse he knows one speed, as do his entry passes, which flew through the hands of USC’s big men on multiple occasions. When the usage falls on his shoulders in a heavy way like it did Tuesday these mistakes can be the result.

“I feel like it’s just a freshman making freshman mistakes,” Collier said.

This is the rollercoaster the Trojans signed up for and would, a thousand times over. Through three games, the peaks and valleys of Collier have led the Trojans to victories over Kansas State and Cal State Bakersfield and – despite his seven turnovers – kept them in it on Tuesday.

With Ellis out, in the minimal spurts when Collier sat – catching his breath, dealing with cramps, reeling from a knee injury that kept him out of practice until yesterday – USC’s offense turned listless, essentially forgetting how to swing the ball.

Oziyah Zellers, who started for the first time this season after scoring a career-high 16 points in 25 minutes on Thursday, shot 1 for 11. Rodman didn’t find the bottom of the net until he hit a pair of free throws four minutes into the second half.

“Everybody had to play down a few positions tonight,” Enfield said. “That was a little hard as far as our playbook goes because we just didn’t have the playmakers that we normally have.

That being said, the Anteaters’ peskiness and sturdiness against Collier in the paint, controlled Tuesday’s game.

And if Tillis’ right wing 3-pointer, which increased the UCI lead to six points, sparked the reality of this upset, then it was that sloppy possession, ending in Hornery’s air ball – one that mimicked so many of the offensive possessions the Trojans’ had – that put a final stamp on it.

“I couldn’t get one to go early. But I was able to get it when it counted,” said Tillis, who finished with eight points and 10 rebounds.

It’s the second straight year the Anteaters have taken down a ranked Pac-12 opponent away from home. They beat a short-handed Oregon team by 13 points in Eugene last November.

“It’s definitely rewarding to get wins like this,” said Hohn, a senior guard. “We’ve got a bunch of guys that can make plays and we all trust each other, too. So it’s just step up, make the play, and guys did that.”