LOS ANGELES — After a sputtering first half, the USC men’s basketball found itself in a draw with Long Beach State heading into the halftime locker room. It wasn’t the type of performance the Trojans had become accustomed to during their undefeated start to the season, on either end of the court.
But then a Chevez Goodwin put-back put USC back up and was quickly followed by an Isaiah Mobley 3. A Goodwin free throw, a Mobley and-one, another Goodwin second-chance bucket and then a Boogie Ellis 3-pointer, and USC had rattled off a 14-0 run to start the second half.
It was the spark that USC needed to take a 73-62 victory over LBSU and improve to 10-0 on the season.
Mobley led USC with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while Drew Peterson added 15. Joel Murray led Long Beach with 14 points.
It wasn’t exactly like USC cruised away from Long Beach (3-7) following the run to open the second half. Colin Slaters scored nine of his 12 points in the second half to give LBSU hope, while Romelle Mansel scored 10 off the bench.
An Ellis steal and skip pass up ahead to Mobley for a dunk with 2:15 to play helped seal the win for USC, but even in the aftermath of that play USC failed to get back on defense and allowed Mansel a transition dunk and forced head coach Andy Enfield to call timeout.
“I think when we get a lead sometimes, we relax a little bit on the defensive end,” Enfield said. “We don’t really think that’s a good solution to winning basketball games.”
A buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Peterson was the only thing that salvaged a tie at the half for the Trojans and ensure USC didn’t trail at the break for the first time this season. Nine first-half turnovers by USC led to 13 Long Beach points. LBSU attacked the paint for 14 points in the opening 20 minutes, shooting 51.7% against the typically-stout Trojan defense.
It left the season-high crowd of 5,561 at the Galen Center, including a full student section, quiet for much of the first half except for when new head football coach Lincoln Riley was introduced on the court.
But USC tightened up when necessary, holding Long Beach to 8-for-31 shooting in the second half to secure the win and the season-long streak of holding opponents below 40% shooting from the floor (38.3% in LBSU’s case on Sunday).
“We made our point at halftime as a coaching staff and we moved on,” Enfield said.
Still, USC walked away knowing it had played uncharacteristically sloppy basketball. The Trojans were outrebounded 35-34 and gave up 15 offensive rebounds, though they limited the damage to nine second-chance points.
But the 15 turnovers helped Long Beach to 20 fast-break points and kept USC from emptying the bench late.
“I don’t think any of us are really satisfied with this,” Peterson said. “So it’s definitely a lot of takeaways that we’re going to have going into Wednesday (against UC Irvine).”
BRIEFLY
USC guard Isaiah White did not play against Long Beach. Enfield mentioned injuries and academics as part of what kept White out on Sunday, but said he expects the senior back on Wednesday against UCI.