By Kenneth Cross
The USC Trojans needed a survival method when they trailed No. 8 UCLA, 44-28, at halftime. UCLA only trailed twice before picking up a 60-58 win at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday evening.
In the second half, UCLA saw a stringent Trojans defense that used quicker matchups to hold the Bruins to only 5-of-22 shots with a pair of threes. UCLA guard Jaylen Clark nailed a three from the top of the key to allow the Bruins to regain the lead at 59-58.
“When Jaime (Jaquez) goes to the basket, they’ve got three guys blocking shots,” said UCLA head coach Mick Cronin.
Reece Dixon-Waters became a major issue for UCLA to cover as he scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half as he was 7-of-7 from the floor for the game.
“Our defense was really bad the entire second half,” noted Cronin. “We couldn’t guard Reese (Dixon-Waters). He looked like an NBA ISO consistent shooter.”
Dixon-Waters gave the Trojans their first lead since 2-0 at 58-56 with 32 seconds to play. The Trojans came from 19-down, but Clark’s subsequent three saved the day for UCLA.
“We just played poorly,” said USC head coach Andy Enfield. “It was embarrassing in the first half. I was embarrassed as a coach, and I was embarrassed for our players. I didn’t yell at them at halftime. I just had a sense that our players knew what to do in the second half. We came out much better in the second half.” 
UCLA opened the game up early as David Singleton made a pair of early threes before Dylan Andrews’ triple gave UCLA an 18-4 lead with 11:34 left before halftime.
“We guarded the paint extremely well in the first half,” Cronin said. “Points in the paint, I don’t have the first half stats, but we were winning points in the paint. We ended up (leading by 12). I’m going to guess they had 20 or more in the second half.”
USC outscored UCLA, 28-16, in the paint while they also outscored the Bruins, 22-5, off the bench behind Dixon-Waters.
Jaquez had a huge impact in the second half for UCLA as he scored 10 of his 12 points and had a six points midway through the Trojans run which kept the Bruins in position to pull out the win.
“Like Jaylen said, we just came out in the second half flat and there’s really no excuse for it,” said Jaquez. “I put that on myself, letting the team come out like that. We just weren’t ready to play in the second half and we gave up that lead.”