Men’s basketball aims to rebound from past last-second losses in upcoming USC game

The last time the Bruins and Trojans squared off, Tahj Eaddy drilled a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to claim victory for the visiting team in Pauley Pavilion.

It marked the second last-second win for USC over UCLA in two seasons, leaving coach Mick Cronin winless against the blue and gold’s crosstown rival since his hiring in 2019.

“We need a win,” Cronin said. “It would be nice to maybe win one at the buzzer.”

Cronin will get the chance to claim that elusive victory Saturday night when No. 12 UCLA men’s basketball (17-4, 9-3 Pac-12) faces No. 21 USC (20-4, 9-4) at the Galen Center. In addition to the two buzzer-beating losses, the Bruins have twice fallen by double-digits to the Trojans under Cronin, including an 18-point defeat on the road a year ago.

Like Cronin, redshirt junior guard Tyger Campbell has yet to take down the Trojans in his three seasons on the active roster. He said the winless streak will serve as added motivation Saturday.

“Of course, there’s fire there – playing here for three years, not beating them yet,” Campbell said. “We just got to come out there, play a good team game, spread the ball, pass it and just do whatever coach needs us to do to get the win.”

While Eaddy and Evan Mobley – the No. 3 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft and USC’s leading scorer a season ago – are no longer on the roster, the Trojans still enter Saturday’s contest ranked in the AP top 25 poll and stand half a game away from the Bruins for second place in the Pac-12.

USC is led by Evan’s brother, forward Isaiah Mobley, and newcomer guard Boogie Ellis, who average 14.7 and 12.8 points per game, respectively, for the conference’s fourth-best scoring offense.

The Trojans also rank second in the Pac-12 in rebounding, assists and scoring defense while shooting at the third-most efficient clip.

“They have literally dominated the bottom line in every category,” Cronin said. “We’re both fighting to get better and stay close in the Pac-12 race and seeding in the NCAA tournament, so it’s going to be a tough game.”

But after climbing as high as No. 5 in the country following a 13-0 start, USC proceeded to lose four of its next 10 games and trailed by double digits in the second half to Pacific on Tuesday.

The Trojans have also made 36.2% of their field-goal attempts in their past three games – down nearly 10 percentage points from their season average. Leading scorer Isaiah Mobley will also be playing through an injury Saturday after breaking his nose a week ago against Arizona.

Despite his opponent’s recent struggles, Cronin said USC is dangerous.

“Trying to motivate your team to play Pacific in-between Arizona and UCLA might be the toughest task in the history of college coaching,” Cronin said. “(The Trojans) tend to play as good as they need to play, for the most part, (and) they can match up with anybody.”

UCLA has also seen a recent slide of late, losing two of its last three games – including a triple-overtime defeat to Arizona State a week ago. The Bruins mustered 62 points in regulation against the Sun Devils, punctuating a three-game stretch that saw the blue and gold average 64.7 points in regulation.

However, UCLA got back on track Tuesday, tallying 79 points against Stanford en route to a nine-point victory.

“If you can get to 79 like we did against Stanford, you give yourself a chance. … So we talked, ‘How are we going to get there?'” Cronin said. “I give (the players) the credit because we only had one practice to really talk about it, work on it, (and) we got better ball movement. We ran the floor.”

While the vast majority of the Bruin roster has yet to beat the Trojans, senior guard David Singleton is one of three active players who have played in victories against USC.

But even with the wins against his crosstown rivals, Singleton said he pays more attention to the losses, particularly Eaddy’s game-winning 3 last season.

“I watch it constantly. … That was probably the first thing I watched after the Stanford game at 1 in the morning,” Singleton said. “We don’t want to go through that again.”