LOS ANGELES — At every seat in the lower bowl at Galen Center Saturday, cardinal foam fingers waited for fans. Not in the V for Victory, but with three fingers raised to celebrate any USC 3-pointer in the Trojans’ game against Stanford.
It was a bold statement for the Trojans to make. USC hasn’t exactly been a consistent threat from the distance this year, and entered the night making 32.8% of its 3-point attempts, ranking 262nd in Division I.
But USC rose to the marketing challenge, making a season-high 13 3-pointers to beat Stanford 85-75.
Boogie Ellis led the Trojans with a career-high 33 points on 6 for 10 shooting from 3-point range to go with a career-high seven assists. Drew Peterson added 21 points with three triples as USC shot 13 for 25 from distance.
USC’s previous season-high of 12 3s didn’t even last 48 hours. Across the two wins over Cal and Stanford this week, USC made 25 3-pointers after averaging 5.6 in the first 25 games of the season.
On Saturday, the Trojans actually got off to a slow 3 for 12 start from the floor with Stanford going up 15-9 with crisp passing and confident shots. But Drew Peterson hit a 3-pointer to halve the lead and Boogie Ellis tied it with his own triple.
When two more 3s from Ellis and Kobe Johnson put USC up six, fans were waving their foam fingers in the air.
Stanford kept things close until Ellis hit back-to-back 3s in the final two minutes, giving him five for all 15 of his first-half points. Guard Kobe Johnson poked away a Stanford pass to set up the fastbreak that led to the fifth triple, with Peterson whipping the ball to Ellis in the corner for an eight-point lead.
USC got off to another slow, 2 for 8 start from the floor in the second half. But a Peterson 3 followed by an Ellis steal and dunk got the Trojans going again, even with Ellis getting hit with a technical for hanging on the rim.
Stanford adjusted for USC’s hot shooting, crowding the perimeter. But this only opened up driving lanes for…
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