Trojans shake off shooting slump, edge Sun Devils

USC figured the universe owed it karmic justice, so Jordan McLaughlin looked up expectantly after launching a three-pointer from midcourt as the buzzer sounded at halftime Sunday evening.

The arc of McLaughlin’s shot was long, but it bent toward the glass, then the bottom of the net. He did not seem surprised. As he walked to the locker room, he did, however, smile as if he’d just successfully stolen from the cookie jar. He’s gotten good at this — he made a long, halftime buzzer-beater against California earlier this month.

“He shoots a lot of them after practice,” guard Elijah Stewart said afterward, rolling his eyes.

USC’s 82-79 win over Arizona State issued back pay for a miserable shooting stretch, when it could hardly make a layup, much less make three-pointers with any consistency. USC (17-4, 4-4 in the Pac-12) owned the worst shooting percentage in the league during conference games.

But on Sunday, McLaughlin had his buzzer beater. Guard Jonah Mathews had one, too. Stewart swished an excuse-me attempt after he tried and failed to draw a foul in the air. Even when USC missed, it worked out. A bizarre series of three bricked dunks in a row somehow ended with the ball in Stewart’s hands, behind the three-point arc. That one, he didn’t miss.

“You can’t shoot terribly every game for the entire season,” Coach Andy Enfield said. “Eventually the law of averages have to work out.”

USC made 14 of 27 three-pointers against the Sun Devils. It shot 52% overall. McLaughlin made seven of 13 shots. He scored 18 points with eight assists. Stewart made 11 of 19 field goals and finished with 29 points.

“It feels good,” Stewart said. “But I like winning more. If my numbers take a hit and we win, I’m really not tripping. But the team tells me I have to score for us to win.”

He made seven three-pointers, and the Trojans did need every single one of them to withstand a withering Arizona State assault in the final 90 seconds — aided by an equally intense USC collapse — that nearly cost USC a double-digit lead.

USC was up by 10 points when forward Nick Rakocevic fouled Torian Graham on a three-pointer. A Chimezie Metu turnover, after he was trapped in the corner, led to another Graham layup. Then a five-second violation led to another Arizona State score. The Sun Devils (9-11, 2-5) had shaved the deficit to three points in a span of 23 seconds. Graham led the team with 24 points.

“Getting the ball in was troublesome for us,” Mathews said.

USC didn’t score in the final one minute, 46 seconds (and attempted just one shot), but after its seven-point burst, Arizona State didn’t score again.

Enfield said the near-miss was a result of youth — Mathews, a freshman, started for the first time this season, and fellow freshmen De’Anthony Melton and Rakocevic played significant minutes. Enfield’s own mismanagement of timeouts didn’t help, either, he said.

“That’s a learning experience for all of our guys,” Enfield said. “But at the same time, our freshmen played really well tonight. So you have to take the good with the bad. I’ll take the blame for that missed inbound down the stretch.”

USC usually hasn’t played perfectly, Enfield said after the game. Often, he added, USC hasn’t played even great. But it is 17-4, while missing its most irreplaceable player, with a key game against UCLA on the horizon.

“If you would’ve told us, any of us, our coaching staff or our team, that we’d be 17-4 without Bennie Boatwright,” Enfield said, “we would have taken it. We probably wouldn’t have believed it.”

Boatwright, who has missed 14 games because of a sprained knee, and missed two games before that because of a different injury, watched the game from USC’s bench. He has returned to light work during practice, but he hasn’t been cleared for contact.

His skill set — length and athleticism to complement guard skills — are badly needed against the lightning-fast UCLA offense. It will not be available in the rivals’ meeting on Wednesday. Enfield ruled out a return for that game. A return for USC’s next game, at Washington on Feb. 1, is a possibility.

“I would anticipate him being ready for a contact practice within a week, maybe a week and a half,” Enfield said.

USC Up Next

Wednesday vs. UCLA, 8 p.m. , Galen Center, FS1 — USC has won three games in a row over UCLA. It hasn’t won four games in a row over the Bruins since a stretch from 2009 to 2011.

zach.helfand@latimes.com