Bennie Boatwright’s return from injury was breathtaking - literally

The return of USC forward Bennie Boatwright against Washington on Wednesday began modestly.

“I only played like four or five minutes in the first half,” Boatwright said Friday. In his first game in about two months — a span of 15 games — he picked up two quick fouls and had to sit.

“I was dead tired anyway,” he said. “So I wasn’t worried about it.”

Conditioning aside, Boatwright’s first game back from a knee injury couldn’t have gone much better. After the cameo off the bench in the first half, Boatwright re-established himself, playing nearly the entire second half. In a total of 21 minutes, he scored 23 points on seven-of-10 shooting and had four assists.

With Boatwright powering the offense, USC came back from a 10-point halftime deficit.

“To be out for 10 weeks and to come back and do what he did in the second half is amazing,” USC Coach Andy Enfield told reporters after the game.

Boatwright said he avoided placing expectations on himself.

“I just went into the game just trying not to worry about anything,” he said. “It was my first game back, so I didn’t want to worry about if I played bad or didn’t shoot well. I didn’t worry about any of that. I just wanted to come in and try to get a flow, a rhythm.”

The fast adjustment bodes well for USC (19-4, 6-4 in Pac-12 Conference play), which will try to collect its first conference road sweep in Enfield’s tenure when it plays at Washington State (11-11, 4-6) on Saturday.

Boatwright’s injury did provide one side benefit: More minutes to develop freshmen such as guards De’Anthony Melton and Jonah Mathews and forward Nick Rakocevic. Boatwright said that they all had improved visibly since the last time he played with them.

Boatwright said he wasn’t sure how long it would take him to get fully back into game shape.

“My legs did feel really heavy,” he said. “They felt heavy, but I didn’t feel like I was behind, though.”

Travel’s highs … and lows

USC did some sightseeing while in Seattle to play Washington. The team released a video of forward Chimezie Metu catching a fish tossed to him over two ice displays at Pike Place Market.

Its travel to Washington State was less pleasant. The team’s flight into Moscow-Pullman Regional Airport, a tiny two-gate facility, was cancelled. The team instead flew into the larger Spokane International Airport, then drove about two hours to Pullman. The total travel time was almost eight hours.

Just stop it

UCLA revved its offense again Wednesday against Washington State after a couple of showings that were subpar by its standards. The Bruins’ 95-point outburst had a welcome accomplice: defense.

“We were a lot more active, we had 25 deflections on the night, which is something we wanted to do to be disruptive and that helped our offense get back in the 90s again,” UCLA Coach Steve Alford said after his team’s 16-point triumph.

Freshman point guard Lonzo Ball tied his career high with five steals and the Bruins forced 14 turnovers, leading to 22 points. There was one stretch early in the second half in which UCLA’s perimeter defense lagged as Washington State made three three-pointers to slice what had been a 10-point halftime deficit to two. But overall it counted as progress for a team that had failed to consistently generate stops in its previous two games, both losses.

“Other than the first eight minutes of the second half,” Alford said, “I thought defensively we were a lot better.”

NEXT UP

USC AT WASHINGTON STATE

When: 5 p.m. Saturday

Where: Beasley Arena, Pullman, Wash.,

On the air: TV: Pac-12 Networks. Radio: 710.

Update: USC shot 68% in the second half against Washington to win, 82-74. It was the 10th time this season USC has come back from a deficit of nine points or more. Freshman guard De’Anthony Melton continued a recent surge. He scored 16 points with seven rebounds, six assists, six steals and two blocks. ... The win positioned USC to do something it has never done during Enfield’s tenure: sweep a Pac-12 Conference road series. USC hasn’t swept a road trip against Washington and Washington State since 2002. … Washington State has climbed out of the Pac-12 basement. Last season, it won one conference game. This season, it sits in the middle of the pack — seventh in the conference at 4-6, even though it hasn’t defeated a team in the top half of the Pac-12 standings. Forward Josh Hawkinson paces the team in points (16.0) and rebounds (9.8) per game.

— Zach Helfand

ben.bolch@latimes.com

Twitter: @latbbolch