The Washington men’s basketball team targeted Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson and knew if it was going to snap a five-game losing streak against USC, then the Huskies had to slow down Trojans’ leading scorers.
“Got to make some shots, which is huge,” UW coach Mike Hopkins said when asked the keys to the game. “But the big thing with USC is Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson.
“Drew Peterson can pick you apart like anybody. He finds other players. Boogie Ellis is a guy that when he’s hot … he’s got (the) ability to be an explosive scorer.”
Sure enough, Ellis scored a game-high 27 points — one shy of his personal best — and made the most important shots in the final minutes to hand the Huskies an 80-67 defeat on Friday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.
Peterson wasn’t too shabby either, finishing with 17 points, and the USC duo upstaged a superlative performance from Keion Brooks Jr. and Keyon Menifield, who finished with 22 and 18 points, respectively.
Washington dropped its second straight game and fell to 9-5, 1-2 before Sunday’s 4 p.m. matchup against No. 11 UCLA.
Noah Williams, who missed the previous 12 games due to a knee injury, made his first appearance since UW’s season opener. The 6-foot-5 senior guard came off the bench with 16:03 left in the first half and seemingly provided the Huskies an emotional lift despite scoring three points on 1-for-8 shooting in 23 minutes.
Washington also received a tangible boost from a tweak in the lineup in which Menifield made his third start in place of fifth-year guard Jamal Bey, who came off the bench for the first time since 2020.
Menifield, who scored the first five points for UW, gave the Huskies a formidable perimeter scoring threat to create space that allowed Brooks to operate in the middle and Braxton Meah to torment the Trojans in the post.
Washington had three of the top four scoring performers in the first half in Brooks (12 points), Menifield (10) and Meah (eight) and the Huskies trailed 41-34 at the break in large part because PJ Fuller II, Cole Bajema, Williams and Bey were scoreless.
In the second half, Bajema caught fire and converted (4 of 7 three-pointers for 12 points), including a long-range dagger that put Washington up 56-55 for its first lead since midway through the first half.
On the ensuing possession, Bajema wrestled the ball away from a USC player and Menifield converted the turnover into a fast-break layup to make it 58-55 with 9:56 left.
The Trojans answered with an 11-0 run to reclaim momentum and move ahead 66-58 and Washington never got closer than five points the rest of the way.