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…
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