LAS VEGAS — Of course Terrell Brown Jr. was taking the shot.
Down two points with 27.5 seconds remaining in the Pac-12 quarterfinals, the Washington Huskies put the ball in the hands of the league’s scoring leader.
With USC’s Isaiah Mobley hounding him, Brown drove to the rim, but his reverse layup spun off the glass and bounced out of bounds after glancing off a Trojan defender.
Washington had one last chance to win or tie when Emmitt Matthews Jr. knifed into the lane and his midrange floater missed the rim and was collected by USC.
It was a dramatic end for the No. 6 seed Husky men who fell 65-61 to No. 3 seeded USC at T-Mobile Arena.
Barring an unlikely National Invitation Tournament berth, Washington’s season ended Thursday night.
The loss snapped UW’s three-game winning streak and forces the Huskies (17-15) to wait until Sunday when the NIT bids are announced to find out their postseason fate.
Heading into the conference tournament, most NIT projections did not include Washington, which needed a couple of wins against quality opponents to improve its resume.
Of course, that’s going to be one of the lingering story lines from what was billed as a make-or-break season for coach Mike Hopkins.
The Huskies feasted on lower-tier Pac-12 opponents — including an 82-70 victory over No. 11 seed Utah in the Wednesday’s tournament opener — but they struggled against the league’s elite.
Washington was 0-5 against the conference’s top three teams losing each game by at least 10 points and collectively the margin of defeat was 17.5 points.
UW has lost eight straight conference tournament games against higher seeded teams. The last time the Huskies orchestrated an upset, Isaiah Thomas led them to the 2011 Pac-10 tournament title.
Brown tried to buck the Huskies’ sordid history with yet another spellbinding performance befitting his final college game.
The All-Pac-12 performer finished with 23 points, but he had just two in the second half when Washington converted 8 of 34 shots.
The Huskies got off to a wonderful start thanks to Brown who scored all of their points while carrying them to an early 9-8 lead.
The first half featured 10 lead changes and the two teams wrestled for control over the next five minutes, which resulted in the Trojans going ahead 19-18 following a second-chance bucket from Ethan Anderson.
At the other end, backup guard Cole Bajema answered with a three-pointer and the Huskies never trailed again in the first half.
Brown highlighted UW’s 21-17 run in the 91/2 minutes with a trio of highlight baskets, including a pullup midrange jumper over Drew Peterson in the lane and a driving layup in traffic.
The Pac-12 scoring leader capped the first-half scoring for the Huskies with a step-back three-pointer against Chevez Goodwin and Washington went into halftime with a 39-36 lead.
The Huskies went up 44-36 early in the second half when USC went on an 11-2 run to regain the lead at 47-46 with 15:00 minutes left.
