Instead of Love and Mayo, the paying customers got this season's models -- DeRozan and UCLA's Jrue Holiday -- Los Angeles freshmen who have played with and against each other since middle school.
Holiday struck early, hitting a pair of three-point shots as UCLA opened an 11-point lead.
Things looked especially bad for the Trojans when forward Taj Gibson collected his third foul less than six minutes into the game and went straight to the bench. But, as USC Coach Tim Floyd said, "our guys hung in there."
With UCLA going scoreless for almost four minutes, DeRozan made three jump shots to pull his team within 33-31 by halftime.
The Trojans then put together a 12-0 run in the first minutes of the second half -- again, DeRozan doing much of the damage -- to lead by six points.
That's when UCLA began to settle down, in part by putting more defensive emphasis on DeRozan. Holiday asked to guard DeRozan and Howland said yes. The other Bruins helped.
"They took away my jump shot by switching on everything," DeRozan said. "I couldn't get the looks I was getting in the first half."
Surrounded by a crowd that rose to its feet, howling, Holiday drove to his left and banked a layup high off the glass, over Gibson's outstretched hands, to give UCLA a two-point lead.
Dragovic scored the next six points and Collison, who had a game-high 18 points with six assists, made a free throw to seal the victory.
Afterward, Gordon said he was taken aback by the sheer volume of the crowd, especially after his elbow to Hackett's face, which drew no foul but prompted a hail of boos.
"It was completely accidental," he said. "Hopefully, the fans don't hate me for it."
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david.wharton@latimes.com
