THE FIGHT ENDS

Trojans’ Pac-12 Tournament hopes, and likely season, end in blowout loss to Arizona

As dubstep pumped through the speakers in Vegas, a rocking overstimulation of a hostile crowd and Arizona’s bodybumping defense overwhelming USC with their season on the line, freshman Isaiah Collier stood by halfcourt out of the break and closed his eyes.

He breathed. In. Out. In. Out.

This was mayhem, a freshman taking a moment before the war resumed on the floor of T-mobile Arena. This was college basketball at its finest Thursday afternoon, two teams with regular-season history matching up in the second round of a one-anddone conference tournament, unwilling to

UCLA comes up short against Oregon in the Pac-12tournament.

give an inch. Open jumpers came as freely as water in Vegas. Arizona’s Caleb Love and Collier, their programs’ respective top scorers, exchanged words and snarls virtually from the tip.

And Collier’s breaths were for naught, as USC’S composure fell apart by the second half. Passes were thrown scared. Jumpers were taken short-armed. USC’S shot died in the desert against Arizona, a drought unlike any other they’d seen in a rocky season, and their season died with it in a 70-49 loss in the second round of the Pac-12 Tournament.

“We did all we could,” senior forward DJ Rodman said postgame. “And sometimes, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not enough. That’s what happened today.”

They’d finally clicked by March, a roster fully healthy, rolling off a four-game winning streak as players like Collier and wings Kobe Johnson and DJ Rodman tapped into grooves they’d never found all season. But they ran into Arizona, frothing at the mouth from the tip after USC embarrassed them last Saturday, a team that has still never lost in the Pac-12 Tournament in head coach Tommy Lloyd’s tenure.

And a season that began with March hopes, with super-senior Boogie Ellis returning for one last NCAA Tournament shot and top recruits Collier and Bronny James joining the fray in viral explosion, fell short

JOHN LOCHER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS USC players Joshua Morgan (24) and Kobe Johnson (0) walk off the court after losing to Arizona in the Pac-12tournament quarterfinals.