Officially, the game, UCLA's season and probably USC's stint in NCAA tournament purgatory, ended at 8:08 p.m. Wednesday.
Effectively, it was over before halftime, in USC's 95-71 victory in the first round of the Pac-12 Conference tournament. If ever one sequence captured two widely divergent seasons, it was this one.
With less than two minutes left in the first half, USC forward Chimezie Metu threw down an alley-oop over UCLA's 7-foot center, Thomas Welsh. The next possession, he was presented with another lob.
Metu jumped, caught the ball with one hand, cocked it back, then slammed it over a hopeless Gyorgy Goloman.