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The Bruins’ fate Wednesday night seemed sealed at halftime when the Trojans left the court at Pauley Pavilion with a 20-point lead. USC’s key to holding UCLA to only 24 points in the first half stemmed from its success in keeping Trevor Ariza, T.J. Cummings, Dijon Thompson, Cedric Bozeman and Brian Morrison from scoring. “We know certain people on their team shoot the basketball, and we didn’t want them to get going,” USC coach Henry Bibby said. He specifically mentioned Thompson, who came back in the second half to score 11 points. But others, such as Ariza and Cummings, are usually major factors in UCLA’s scoring, and they left the first half without contributing to the scoreboard. Offensively, Ryan Hollins was the only impact player for UCLA, scoring 13 points in the first half and eight in the second. His 21 points blew away his career-high in scoring by seven points. A UCLA resurgence in the second half was countered by a Trojan zone defense that forced Bruin 3-pointers, only a few of which found the rim. “We made them take tough shots,” Bibby said.

MORRISON’S BACK: Brian Morrison, who injured his left hamstring against Michigan State in late December, returned to play Wednesday night. At the time of his injury, Morrison was the Bruin’s top 3-point shooter and No. 3 scorer, averaging 11.8 points per game. He didn’t fare too well against the Trojans, though, adding only one point off a free throw and missing four field goal attempts and three 3-point tries. Coming back to the court after missing nine games and only returning to practice this week, Morrison seemed tentative but said he wasn’t thinking about his injury during the game.