Ellis leads hot-shooting Trojans past Stanford
LOS ANGELES ❯❯ At every seat in the lower bowl at Galen Center Saturday, cardinal foam fin- gers 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 seasonhigh 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 backto-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 eightpoint 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 Ellis and other Trojans to exploit and get to the rim or the free-throw line and keep the Cardinal out of reach.
Shooting wasn't the only encouraging sign for the Trojans. USC also got some welcome reinforcements on Saturday with the return of center Joshua Morgan (ankle) and guard Reese DixonWaters (leg) after fourgame absences.
Both moved well in their returns off the bench. Morgan was able to slide laterally and challenge shots, while Dixon-Waters was a nuisance to ball handlers in the backcourt. DixonWaters got free for a twohanded transition dunk in the first half, then swung the ball to Morgan cutting to the rim for his own slam.