LOS ANGELES — Their most trusted shooter sat at the free-throw line, the ballgame squarely in Boogie Ellis’ hands, no better man in a USC jersey for the job.
He’d sent one 3-point attempt after another clanking off the rim on Thursday night against Utah, finishing just 1 for 9 from behind the arc, visibly hanging his head after back-to-back deep shots missed during one second-half stretch. He’d been haggled ever since a return from a hamstring injury, his burst limited, embroiled in a major five-game slump. But he was still a sniper, and his shot, as Ellis said Tuesday, was the “least of (his) worries” – and so he took the ball with a chance to put a rough-and-tumble game away, ahead by two with 11 seconds left.
He missed a one-and-one, and Utah immediately pushed the ball down the other way with a chance to tie. And USC’s Galen Center, thumping now after a quiet start, audibly gasped in this Twilight Zone of a season.
And then they roared back to life in a matter of seconds, center Joshua Morgan flying high and sealing the game in the palm of his hand, USC escaping a gritty Utah team with a 66-64 win.
Utes guard Deivon Smith took Ellis’ missed free throw up the court, bursting past junior Kobe Johnson, and with a few ticks left extended for a layup. But Morgan, hanging onto Utah’s star center Branden Carlson near the top of the arc, read Smith’s drive perfectly – and burst back into the play, rejecting Smith’s layup squarely off the glass, sending it ricocheting away to DJ Rodman to seal the win.
It’s been a frustrating season – like so many on USC’s roster – for Morgan, who went down with a respiratory virus in the middle of the season, losing 15 pounds and looking like a gaunt shell of his former self when he returned. But he’d climbed all the way back by Saturday night, flexing and roaring to an elated Trojans bench, sealing an up-and-down win.
USC (10-15 overall, 4-10 Pac-12) played with a vengeance, a connectedness,…
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