Boogie Ellis leads surging USC past Arizona State

LOS ANGELES — As Arizona State’s Adam Miller walked to the free-throw line in the second half on Thursday night, Boogie Ellis stood about 80 feet away, already back down at the other end of the court. Perched. Ready.

The USC senior hunched over in the corner, the visible equivalent of LeBron James in Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference finals, smoke off his fingertips. ASU’s Frankie Collins tracked him like a hawk, already checking Ellis on the opposite side of the court as Miller took his free throws. And Collins started talking.

“He was just telling me that his coach told him not to let me catch the ball,” Ellis said after an 81-73 win Thursday night, “so he didn’t want me to catch the ball.”

Ellis just laughed.

No amount of face-guarding could slow him in the Trojans victory on Thursday night, Ellis spending what could be his last days in a Trojan uniform and wholly unwilling to go down without a fight as USC (13-17 overall, 7-12 Pac-12) closed out ASU (14-16, 8-11). He caught fire in the second half, hitting a 3-pointer shortly out of the break in a closely-knotted game, nailing three more within a three-minute span midway through the second half. On the final 3-pointer, he relocated behind the arc off a turnover on pure muscle memory and buried a quick-trigger shot without so much as setting his feet.

His confidence grew audacious, catching the ball out beyond the 3-point line on one second-half possession and visibly waving off any teammate within a 5-foot radius to attack ASU’s Jose Perez in isolation.

Ellis rimmed a floater off the iron. Can’t win them all. But he missed just four more shots on the night, finishing with 28 points, a ridiculous 6-of-8 showing from long range and an 8-of-12 mark overall.

“Coach really emphasized, our March is now,” Ellis said after the game. “So, we just gotta prepare ourselves now. We gotta act like we’re in the tournament now. We gotta win every game, so you know that when we get to the Pac-12 tournament, there’s no room for error.”

For all the flaws, for all of USC’s dead stretches and drastic slumps, one fact has become apparent: this is a fairly decent basketball team when its starters actually, well, start. Freshman Isaiah Collier. Stalwarts Kobe Johnson, Boogie Ellis and Joshua Morgan. Transfer DJ Rodman. When Trojans coach Andy Enfield has sent those five out for tip-off – heck, when he’s been able to – USC is 9-4, a reality starkly different from the injury-riddled disappointment this season has brought.

And Enfield has reminded reporters at virtually every opportunity of how the Trojans’ season changed once Collier, Ellis and Morgan went down at the same point midseason – USC now visibly clicking in good health as the Pac-12 tournament awaits next week in Vegas.

“This is the team,” Enfield said earlier in practice this week, “we thought we’d have.”

From the tip, USC’s offense hummed, everything from Collier and Ellis’ fingertips turning to gold as the Trojans went on an early 18-9 blitz. With about 13 minutes left in the half, though, Enfield went on a rapid-fire swing of substitutions, finally subbing out Collier for junior forward Harrison Hornery, who had largely fallen out of the rotation in February. Suddenly, USC had a lineup of Bronny James, Oziyah Sellers, Kobe Johnson, Hornery and Vincent Iwuchukwu – Sellers, who like Hornery had seen his playing time slashed in February, perhaps the most natural scorer of the bunch.

USC scored exactly two points in the next 7:57.

Sellers made a pretty baseline jumper, then went quiet. James, a guard who somehow previously avoided taking a 3-point shot for four straight games, hardly much as looked at the rim. Hornery missed a couple of shots. By the time Enfield signaled for Collier and Rodman off the bench, ASU was already on a 7-0 run; with all momentum lost, USC headed into the break tied at 32.

Ellis got hot in the second half, however, and fellow captain Kobe Johnson made a couple of timely 3-pointers and defensive stops, finishing with an efficient 15 points. As a parade of ticky-tack fouls from a particularly zealous referee group sent the final minutes into a free-throw battle, Ellis drove down the lane with seconds waning, dropping in an and-one finish for a cherry on top of a recent USC surge.

“I think once we just clean up just holding the lead, and how to finish out games, I don’t think there’s anybody that can beat us,” Johnson said. “I think there’s a really strong chance we’re going to make a strong run here in the Pac-12 tournament, and surprise a lot of people.”

Perez scored 22 to lead Arizona State. USC finished 25 for 30 from the free-throw line and outrebounded ASU 32-22.

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Boogie Ellis leads surging USC past Arizona State – Daily News

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