Early in the second half at Imperial Arena, Jaxson Robinson hit a jumper to lead BYU in the Bahamas to a 32-21 lead over USC on Wednesday.
The game stayed tight for the next few minutes.
Then the Trojans’ Boogie Ellis got into a groove.
USC (4-1) put on a crucial 18-4 run midway through the second half, ultimately defeating the Cougars 82-76 in a first round game of The Battle 4 Atlantis.
BYU (3-2) trailed by as much as 18 points in the second half with just over four minutes to go. The Cougars rallied and reduced the deficit to single digits, but the Trojans clung to victory.
Ellis prevailed with BYU and tied with a career-high 27 points. He knocked down 7 of 9 shots from the floor, mostly a series of pull-up 2-pointers, and 13 of 17 from the free-throw line.
“They are a good team. They are long, they are skillful. I absolutely loved Boogie tonight,” said Cougar trainer Mark Pope. “We just couldn’t find an answer for him. Their length really bothered us. Their alternating defense from man to zone really bothered us with this young, new team.”
In the last 20 minutes, USC shot 62% versus 40% for BYU.
Robinson, who had a career-high 14 points, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range, said his team didn’t have the same energy in the second half as they did in the first.
“We’ve lost our defensive intensity,” he said. “In the first half we held on to these two guys (Ellis and Drew Peterson) great. In the second half we came out and didn’t have the intensity that we had in the first half and that really hurt us.”
Gideon George noticed the Cougars’ turnovers – 17 – and allowed the Trojans to grab 10 offensive boards.
“Rebounds and turnovers really hurt us,” said George, who scored 10 points and had six rebounds. “We have to do it as a group. We need to play a game with fewer turnovers if we want to win on a big stage.”
BYU’s Spencer Johnson also had a career-high 18 points. He was one of five cougars to make at least two 3-pointers. Rudi Williams had 15 points to go, four rebounds and six assists. He was 2 of 5 out of 3-point territory.
As a team, BYU drilled 12 of 32 3-pointers while USC only made 2 of 10.
But from two-point range, the Trojans were deadly. USC shot 53% from the floor overall for the game.
The Cougars struggled from the free throw line and only went 14 of 22. USC shot even worse from the charity strip, but it outscored BYU from there with 18 of 30.
Not only did Ellis crush the Cougars, but Peterson finished the tournament with 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, while Reese Dixon-Waters added 13 points and Joshua Morgan gave 11 chips.
USC is one of the largest teams in the nation, and its size and length has angered the Cougars at times. The Trojans outperformed BYU in the suit 34-20.
“In the second half we lost focus on the glass. I thought we really effectively held them to two offensive rebounds in the first half,” Pope said. “I was really proud of that. In the second half we sort of collapsed and gave up eight offensive rebounds. Every time we’ve made progress in the game, they’ve thrown in a really important offensive rebound. It just kills you.”
BYU could not handle USC’s weapons.
“They’re a complicated team because Drew is such an elite playmaker. He’s such a problem,” he said. “There are things you don’t try defensively because you think he’s going to tear you apart. He’s really good. At the end of the day, Boogie was a problem for us in isolation from ball sevens. It brought in exactly what we want to give away – we want to give away long, challenged twos. And Boogie just goes, ‘Yep, give me all of them and I’ll do them all.’ He has. He shot almost 80% in that range.”
So far this season, the Cougars have been prone to turnover and that pattern continued Wednesday.
“We really had a turnover problem in the first half,” Pope said. “We’ve had 11 turnovers and so many of them are self-inflicted and it’s super frustrating. It’s just a part of us trying to figure things out. This will make us better.”
Forced into desperation mode near the end of the game, the Cougars employed a press that helped them reduce the deficit and make the game competitive.
“My boys, they are struggling a lot. They’re really beautiful kids,” Pope said. “They will get better because they want it so badly. They will become more comfortable with each other as they mature. We play against a lot of young people. They fought a lot and made a lot of effort.”
Pope added that his players were caught up in “worries and worries and frustrations” throughout the game, something they must learn to overcome.
“I’m proud of the performance of our guys at the end who are trying to keep going,” said Pope. “We are all disappointed with how we played tonight. We’ll play better tomorrow.”
The Cougars meet the loser of the game between No. 22 Tennessee and Butler.