Johnson proves pivotal after up-and-down start

It was exactly the kind of pick-me-up USC had long sought off the bench, except for the fact that point guard Angelo Johnson made a rare start Saturday against Washington.

Nonetheless, with guard O.J. Mayo hobbled by a hip injury midway through the second half, Johnson emerged as the playmaker the Trojans needed during a dicey situation. He made a driving layup and then drove into the lane and fed forward Taj Gibson for a dunk.

Those two plays marked the beginning of a 14-0 run that propelled USC to a 66-51 victory, its first in Pacific 10 Conference play.

“He gave us a lot of energy,” Mayo said of Johnson. “I was hurt and he came in and handled the ball, made some great plays and really played well on defense keeping his man between him and the basket.”

Johnson scored seven points and grabbed a team-high five rebounds in only 26 minutes, the latter impressive for a 5 feet 11, 180-pounder.

“I felt that I wasn’t rebounding the ball well,” Johnson said. “I thought I was standing and watching because I’m the little guy and I don’t go in there [in the paint], so I went in there a lot against Washington and came out with a lot of rebounds.”

It was a potentially seminal moment for a player who had endured an up-and-down start to his college career. After scoring 17 points in his debut against Mercer, Johnson wouldn’t reach double figures in scoring again for five weeks.

More troubling, there were times when he appeared intimidated and reluctant to shoot. That all changed Saturday.

“I just came out there ready to play,” said Johnson, who acknowledged that it took him a while to grasp the Trojans’ offense. “Coach [Tim] Floyd said, ‘Just be yourself. Just play.’ ”

There was a time before Saturday’s game when Johnson didn’t know if he could. He felt dizzy after enduring some “stomach issues” from what he believed was possibly bad eggs and required intravenous fluids at halftime.

“Angelo is a kid that’s improving,” sophomore guard Daniel Hackett said. “It’s his first year, and it’s not easy to play the first year as a point guard. I can tell you that because I kind faced of that. He did a great job.”

In Floyd’s latest version of the Pac-10 standings, USC is entrenched in a three-way tie for seventh alongside Arizona and Washington. That’s one spot better than in the official standings, where the Trojans are alone in eighth.

Floyd’s conference standings reflect a system in which teams are rewarded one point for road victories and penalized one point for home losses. Home victories and road losses are disregarded.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com