Whether it's Tinseltown or the Pacific Northwest, it’s very hard to sweep a West Coast trip in the new Big Ten landscape. A revitalized Indiana basketball had a chance to do that against USC at Galen Center after beating UCLA in Westwood.
That difficulty proved to be true for IU as it lost to USC 81-75 Tuesday night after a chaotic second half in which Indiana never led but was never dead until the final buzzer.
As said on The Hoosier Network’s Throwing Chairs Podcast, USC and UCLA are very different teams. Indiana beat UCLA with clutch shooting and being able to match the Bruins physically. But, the Hoosiers faced a matchup of the inverse with the Trojans. USC poses more athleticism and size that Indiana didn’t need to worry about with the Bruins. Trojan bigs Chad Baker-Mazara, Ezra Ausar and Jacob Cofie lead the way for the Trojans in both points and rebounds season averages.
Southern Cal started blisteringly hot, making its first seven shots to open the game. But then they got blisteringly cold, finishing the half 5-for-25 from the field. Indiana remained in striking distance and even had a couple of leads in the first half. Its last lead of the game would be 25-24 at 5:49 in the first frame. The halftime buzzer sounded with the Trojans up five at 35-30.
The second half was a rollercoaster that only got crazier down the stretch. First, a few possessions into the half, Baker-Mazara would suffer a gruesome foot injury that took him out of the game. The loss wasn’t that harmful as SC got major contributions from freshman guard Alijah Arenas, who was playing in only his fifth game of the season. He led the way with 29 points. Many of his second half field goals helped SC extend its lead when Indiana was a possession or two from coming back even or taking the lead.
Indiana’s biggest deficit in the second half was 14. USC seemed to have all the momentum from big baskets from various players, but IU clawed all the way back, to a point where it was within a possession in the final minute. Indiana’s Tayton Conerway stepped to the free-throw line after an and-one opportunity with 31.5 seconds left to pull Indiana to a one-point deficit, but he missed. The next possessions ended in USC free throws and Conerway getting blocked on a quick layup attempt by USC’s Ryan Cornish.
Indiana’s only hope offensively in the second frame was Lamar Wilkerson who finished the game with 33 points, with 20 coming in the second half. USC won this game because it had something Indiana didn’t’ — complementary scoring.
Indiana is going to win many games in conference play when Wilkerson, Tucker DeVries and Nick Dorn are scoring well. That’s what happened against Purdue and UCLA. That was not the case Tuesday as it was only Wilkerson who showed up. DeVries and Dorn were a combined 3-for-21. Dorn was 2-for-12, all from beyond the 3-point line.
The size and physicality mentioned earlier was a focal point in the game, as USC outrebounded Indiana 40-25. But that’s not what lost Indiana the game. The Hoosiers were a couple Dorn or DeVries buckets from another Quad 1 win. It couldn’t get the job done.
Next up, Indiana will head back home to play two games in three days with Wisconsin on Saturday and Oregon on Monday.
