Washington’s return helps in a big way

USC got a boost with the return of power forward Leonard Washington on Saturday.

Washington, who had missed nearly five weeks because of a high ankle sprain, played 16 minutes in the Trojans’ 65-64 victory over Arizona. He had five points and three rebounds.

“It was great to get minutes from him,” Coach Tim Floyd said. “He has practiced only two days with us. He was able to watch from the sideline when we put in a new zone offense. He went to the right spots. That’s encouraging. He paid attention to the defensive coverage and took [the ball] to the floor.”

Washington also gave the Trojans a player who gave them body-on-body defense inside against Arizona’s big frontline.

“That was a big help to our team,” Floyd said. “He’s not a fine-tuned conditioned athlete right now. He’s going to have to play himself back into shape. His minutes won’t be great until he gets there.”

--

Motivating words

The Trojans got a pep talk from an unusual source . . . well, sort of a pep talk.

USC’s Taj Gibson said the team was told Friday of comments made by UCLA broadcaster and former Bruins player Marques Johnson after the Trojans had beaten 16th-ranked Arizona State.

“He said we were too immature to follow up a big win over Arizona State,” Gibson said. “We came into practice [Friday] and his words were written on the board. We weren’t ‘mentally tough enough to get over that win.’ We showed we were.”

--

Lewis finds range

Dwight Lewis seemed headed for another day of rim shots, as his jumpers repeatedly bounced harmlessly away. At one point early in the second half, he was two for nine from the field.

That changed in the last six minutes, as he made slashing drives that produced baskets or trips to the free-throw line.

“Sometimes when your outside shot is not going, you need to go to the glass,” Floyd said. “You get points or get to the line and get something cheap.”

Lewis scored 12 consecutive points for the Trojans to erase a 56-50 Arizona lead.

“I don’t think about the shots I missed, I just focus on next play,” Lewis said.

--

Hackett’s poise

Daniel Hackett appeared to give the game away when he missed two free throws with 32 seconds left.

“That was tough,” Hackett said. “Stuff like that happened last year, in the Memphis game, in the Oregon game. Those things haunted me a little bit. I wanted to make a play so badly. I wanted to redeem myself.”

Hackett made a 15-foot jumper to tie the score, 64-64, with 15 seconds left and made a mad dash from the backcourt in the final seconds, drawing a foul. He made one of the two free throws to clinch the win.

“I thought he handled that very well,” Floyd said. “He wasn’t emotional. He is so passionate, but he’s balanced. That’s the real key.”

--

chris.foster@latimes.com