Ellis, Trojans take the Pac-12 opener
The transfer from Memphis scores 19 and Mobley adds a double-double.
It’s a quick two-syllable exclamation, uttered so fast it sounds like one. In and out the ear. “Boogie!”
The PA announcer for USC calls it most anytime junior guard Boogie Ellis gets a bucket.
If Wednesday night’s season opener of Pac-12 play was any indication, Trojans fans better get used to hearing it at Galen Center this season.
No. 20 USC jumped all over Utah on Wednesday night, riding an eight-point run by Ellis in less than 1:30 of game clock in the first half to run away with a 93-73 win. Talented big Isaiah Mobley added a double-double as the Trojans improved to 7-0.
With a little over two minutes remaining before halftime, USC had largely stifled
Utah, but couldn’t quite shake the Utes with a ninepoint lead. It was time to Boogie.
Six seconds after a Utes layup, Ellis calmly splashed a three. On the Trojans’ next possession, Mobley drove and fired a pass to the right corner for Ellis, who rotated in the air for another shot from distance that hit nothing but twine.
Then came an Ellis breakaway jam, a Mobley bucket, an Ethan Anderson and-one on a fast break; suddenly, the Galen Center was erupting over a 20-point lead.
A transfer from Memphis, where he was the AAC CoSixth Man of the Year in 202021, Ellis came into Wednesday night averaging nearly 15 points a game.
He scored 19 more against the Utes on a flurry of stopand-pop jumpers and breakaway dunks, further endearing himself to a Trojans crowd that stood to boo relentlessly when he was called for a flop a few minutes into the second half.
Last season’s superstar Evan Mobley — Isaiah’s older
brother — was taken with the third pick of the NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, and second-leading scorer Tahj Eddy is now in the G-League.
But these Trojans returned a majority of the key depth that drove a 25-8 record and run to the Elite Eight last season.
The key to their undefeated run to open the season — their best start since a 14game win streak in 2017 — is a swarming defense that had held opponents to under 32% shooting.
That presence was on full display in the first half.
Isaiah Mobley’s 7-foot-3 wingspan and verticality forced Utes wings into awkward layup attempts around the rim.
Sophomore center Joshua Morgan —who coach Andy Enfield called “one of the best defensive big men we’ve had here at USC” after a Nov. 25 win over St. Joseph’s — notched two resounding blocks on Utes drives early on.