Isaiah Mobley scored 24 points, Boogie Ellis added 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the floor, and No. 15 USC rallied from a sluggish start to hold off Pac-12 Conference counterpart Cal for a 79-72 win Saturday in Los Angeles.
The Trojans (18-3, 8-3) fell behind by 11 points midway through the first half. The early deficit mirrored USC’s start on Thursday against Stanford when the Trojans fell behind by nine points.
In both contests, USC recovered and took a lead into halftime. Unlike Thursday, when the Trojans were outscored in the second half of a 64-61 loss, USC closed out Cal — but not without a challenge.
The Trojans’ lead never reached double-digits, and the Golden Bears were within a single possession of tying with 14 seconds remaining in regulation.
Mobley and Ellis both made key baskets down the stretch, including an and-one play by Ellis that gave USC a five-point cushion with a little more than two minutes remaining.
Ellis went 3-of-3 at the foul line, and the Trojans shot 6-of-7 from the charity stripe as a team over the final 2:04. They finished 21 of 28 on the night.
USC’s free-throw shooting proved more than just timely, but also necessary with its 3-point shots not falling. The Trojans went just 4 of 17 from beyond the arc, while Cal hit a blistering 8 of 16 from deep.
Cal’s Makale Foreman went 3 of 5 from 3-point range off the bench for a team-high 13 points, and Jalen Celestine went 3 of 3 from long range en route to 12 points. Jordan Shepherd and Andre Kelly added another 12 points each, but Kelly missed the final 11 minutes when he sustained an apparent ankle injury on a fast-break dunk.
The Golden Bears (9-12, 2-8) played USC to a near-stalemate without Kelly, who had made six of eight shots from the floor at the time of his injury. Grant Anticevich scored eight points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds manning the post in Kelly’s absence.
The loss marks seven straight for Cal.
–Field Level Media
