USC escapes with a sloppy win over Washington in Pac-12 tournament

USC had withstood plenty on its path to the Pac-12 Conference tournament. Brutal starts. Close finishes. Lengthy defensive lapses and unfortunate offensive slumps. Somehow, the Trojans seemed to always still find a way, even when they were at the worst.

They were pretty close to that nadir again Thursday, if not dragging along the bare bottom of their all-too-familiar doldrums. They’d turned the ball over a season-high 23 times. Their top scorers had fallen flat. Almost every facet of their 40 minutes pointed toward an inexcusable quarterfinal loss, its first in the Pac-12 tournament under coach Andy Enfield since his first season as coach.

But against all odds, even as third-seeded USC tried again and again in the final minute to hand away its ham-fisted effort, it didn’t matter. The Trojans, in spite of it all, still emerged unscathed, at least physically so, in a 65-61 victory over sixth-seeded Washington. They advanced to face second-seeded UCLA in a semifinal game Friday night at 8:30.

The Trojans escaped even as the final two of their turnovers came in the last minute. With 37 seconds left, Max Agbonkpolo threw an errant pass just as USC had taken a four-point lead. When Washington cut that lead to two, Drew Peterson lowered his shoulder into a Washington player just 10 seconds later, handing the Huskies yet another chance. They promptly gave it away again, as Isaiah Mobley had the ball stripped.

Still, even the barrage of ill-fated mistakes couldn’t help Washington hit a shot late, as USC gave the Huskies every chance to send the Trojans packing after one night at the Pac-12 tournament. The Huskies missed 11 of their final 12 shots.

And somehow, USC still had trouble putting away Washington.

After lugging its first losing streak since last February with it to Las Vegas, USC looked like a team that ended its regular season on the wrong note. Where the Trojans could’ve quickly dispelled any concerns Thursday about a potential postseason freefall, they instead inspired more questions about their trajectory in the upcoming NCAA tournament. Namely how they might turn things around or their sudden turnover problem — or how they might stop another star guard like Terrell Brown Jr.

USC struggled mightily to slow down Brown early as the all-conference selection opened by scoring Washington’s first nine points. Even as the Trojans blanketed Brown, offering help from every direction, the Huskies’ silky leading scorer still sliced through the lane with ease.

Washington’s Terrell Brown Jr. shoots around USC’s Isaiah Mobley during the second half of the quarterfinal round of the Pac-12 tournament on Thursday in Las Vegas.

(John Locher / Associated Press)

He scored 16 points in the game’s first 16 minutes, and 21 points in the first half, ending his early onslaught with a high-arcing, fallaway three-pointer with time ticking away in the first half.

He’d only score two more in the second half, finishing with 23. But while Brown put the weight of the Huskies’ offense on his back, the opposite was true of the Trojans’ top scorers, whom Enfield had called on earlier this week to step up.

That wasn’t the case against Washington. Neither Isaiah Mobley nor Drew Peterson made much of an impression, hitting just seven of 16 shots for 18 points. Both were held without a made shot until 12 minutes into the first half, when Mobley finally hit a layup. For Peterson, it took nearly 15 minutes before he sank a jumper from the top of the key.

Washington built an early lead over USC not only by way of Brown incinerating USC’s defense, but also by forcing early turnovers, five of which came in the first seven minutes.

Those issues would emerge again after half, just as USC seemed to steady its shaky start. The Trojans fired off an 11-2 run, taking back the lead within five minutes of the half, only to turn the ball over six times over the next five minutes.

Those turnovers seemed as if they would be USC’s downfall. But again, the Trojans escaped to live another day in Las Vegas.