On a showy night at McKale, Arizona Wildcats put in just enough to get by USC 82-67

Arizona tried to put McKale Center in “dark mode” to promote cancer awareness Wednesday, asking fans to wear black to accentuate pink balloons and pins all over the arena. But the truth of it was that the place was lit.

During the Wildcats’ 82-67 win over USC on Wednesday, a sold-out crowd of 14,688 stood up to enthusiastically greet new UA football coach Brent Brennan, who asked fans to bring that energy into Arizona Stadium next fall. NBA star Kevin Durant sat courtside, while former UA standout Miles Simon and a number of notable football players were shown on the video board also taking it all in.

And on the court, in action beamed all over the country via ESPN’s massive platform, the son of NBA great LeBron James, Bronny, led the shorthanded Trojans in just his second start after suffering offseason cardiac arrest.

“Listen, Arizona basketball, it’s a show,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said.

But, Lloyd added, he wished the Wildcats would have played better for all those folks who watched. Because underneath all those bright lights was nearly the same poor-shooting team that lost 73-70 at Washington State just four days earlier.

After hitting a season-low 34.7% from the field on Saturday at WSU, the Wildcats shot 40.0% and, while Caleb Love hit 5 of 12 3s en route to his game-high 20 point effort, the Wildcats still particularly struggled with the easier shots.  Arizona made only 10 of 26 layups Wednesday after making 11 of 28 at WSU.

The Wildcats drove inside and missed easy shots, and they also missed shots that might have been easy if they were taken a little more wisely.

“We’re taking some crazy attempts and that’s never been a part of Arizona basketball since I’ve been here,” Lloyd said. “We need better discipline and shot selection even on our layups. We need to get paid when we go in there and that’s two games in a row where I feel we struggled a little bit.”

Senior forward Keshad Johnson, who posted his second double-double this season with 10 points and 13 rebounds, said the Wildcats drove inside too often looking to pick up a foul "and that takes away from you actually going to finish" when the whistle doesn't blow.

But Lloyd indicated part of the issue was how the Wildcats were dealing with the heavier dose of zone defense they were facing for the second straight game, with USC and WSU both mixing it in along with man-to-man schemes.

The Wildcats led 45-35 at halftime and were never seriously threatened in the second half, still scoring with a reasonable efficiency, but Lloyd said they appeared “stagnant” at times.

“You’ve got to have guys that move together, two or three guys who are on the same page,” Lloyd said. “You can’t just run set plays against a zone all the time. The best way to attack zone is just feel for the game, passing and skill – and force. We just didn’t do a good enough job in the second half putting those things together.”

Up 45-35 at halftime, Arizona rattled off seven straight points to take a 64-46 lead with 11:36 to go, getting a dunk and layup inside from center Motiejus Krivas and a three-point play by Kylan Boswell.

USC went on its own 7-0 run to pull within 71-59 with 4:29 to go and cut it to 77-67 with 2:10 left when Oziyah Sellers hit a 3-pointer. But Arizona kept the Trojans scoreless the rest of the way while Pelle Larsson hit a 3-pointer and Love threw in a final jumper after a steal by Jaden Bradley.

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Love finished with 7-for-16 shooting overall, hitting the 20-point mark for the sixth time in the past seven games, while Johnson was one of four other UA players in double-figure scoring.

Larsson had 13 points, Kylan Boswell had 11 and Bradley had 10 while starting the second half in place of Boswell because Lloyd said he was "just trying to shake it up a little bit." Lloyd said he hadn't made any final decisions about lineup moves after warning that "everything was on the table" after the WSU loss.

But all that production from the Wildcats came at home against a team with a severe handicap. USC (8-10, 2-5) was without its top two scorers, guards Boogie Ellis and Isaiah Collier: Ellis has missed two straight games with a hamstring injury while Collier broke his hand last week and is expected to miss about a month.

Also, after missing two games last week with a respiratory infection, starting USC center Joshua Morgan played only a limited role off the bench Wednesday, missing both shots he took and collecting two rebounds without a block in 12 minutes.

James helped the Trojans keep it respectable. Having missed the first eight games this season while still recovering from his cardiac arrest event in July, James made his first start last Saturday at Colorado but missed all seven shots he took in Boulder.

On Wednesday, James shot 5 for 11 from the field, picked up five rebounds and dished six assists to five turnovers while being regularly booed by Zona Zoo student fans.

“I thougth he played pretty good today,” Lloyd said. “I don’t know him at all but I’m proud of how he’s handled everything, and the people that I know who know him say ‘First class kid, first class family.’ “

While WSU transfer DJ Rodman led the Trojans with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting, the Wildcats kept Trojans to 42.6% shooting and outrebounded them 47-38.

So relatively, at least, it was a more productive effort for Arizona than it was four days earlier at WSU. With the Wildcats still moving to 13-4 overall and 4-2 in Pac-12 play heading into a game Saturday against UCLA at McKale, Johnson wasn’t complaining.

He spoke of UA's improved shooting and said he didn’t find the energy lacking, as the Wildcats displayed in their Dec. 31 loss at Stanford.

“It’s evident. Everybody in the whole arena could see that our energy was there,” Johnson said. “Of course there’s plays where it lacks but overall it’s heading in the right direction.”

Photos: Arizona claws past USC 82-67, Pac 12 men's basketball