LOS ANGELES – The near-capacity Galen Center crowd buzzed.
As USC forward Bennie Boatwright charged to the basket, putting up a short jump shot in the lane, he drew contact from Dillon Brooks.
An official blew his whistle. For Brooks, Oregon’s fiery leader who had scored a game-high 21 points, it marked his fifth foul. He was out.
Boatwright stepped to the free-throw line with little more than three minutes remaining, and the 6-foot-10 sophomore sank both attempts. It was a one-possession game. The Trojans trailed fifth-ranked Oregon by three firmly within reach of a potential sixth consecutive conference victory despite an 11-point deficit earlier in the contest.
But on the next possession, Tyler Dorsey hit an open 3-pointer in the final second of the shot clock.
The Trojans fell short Saturday night, 81-70, bringing an end to their five-game winning streak in front of an announced crowd of 9,256. Their record dropped to 21-5 and 8-5 in the Pac-12.
“You have to play a little better than we did,” Coach Andy Enfield said.
As USC dropped a 14th consecutive game to Oregon, it was hampered by poor shooting, making 37 percent from the field, as well as 22 percent from 3-point range.
It was also stymied by turnovers.
In the previous loss at Oregon this season, an 84-61 defeat in late December, the Trojans had 17 turnovers. In the second meeting, they had 16 turnovers.
Their last win over the Ducks came on March 5, 2009, a time when most of their starters were in middle school.
USC went ahead early in the second half, by an 11-2 run with 7:51 left.
Sophomore forward Chimezie Metu led USC with 16 points, followed by Boatwright and junior guard Elijah Stewart, who each had 15 points.
A cold spell plagued USC early on.
The Trojans shot as low as 19 percent past the midpoint of the first half, and they missed nine of their first 10 attempts from 3-point range. Boatwright was 0 for 3, with one shot missing the rim entirely.
They even missed a pair of dunks.
After a steal on Oregon’s first possession, De’Anthony Melton passed ahead to Jordan McLaughlin for what looked like any fast-break basket. McLaughlin one-handed slam rimmed out.
In the waning minutes, Metu failed to flush an alley-oop.
USC fell behind by as many as 11 points, trailing Oregon, 26-15, with a little more than six minutes remaining.
Yet it ran off 18 points to tighten the lead, entering halftime down to the Ducks, 35-33. That came despite shooting 32.4 percent, including 13 percent form 3-point range.
USC next faces UCLA on Feb. 18.
Contact the writer: jkaufman@scng.com
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