USC loses to Illinois in blowout game at home

In the final minute, it was hard to tell which was the home team.

Fans wearing orange outnumbered their cardinal counterparts inside LA’s Galen Center, standing and cheering a lob dunk that had pushed Illinois into triple digits.

In another demoralizing showing on its home court, USC was outclassed across the board Wednesday night. The No. 10 Fighting Illini were superior on offense, defense, and in bringing the noise during a 101–65 victory that represented the most lopsided loss of coach Eric Musselman’s two seasons with the Trojans.

This was worse than a 30-point loss to Michigan and 29-point setback against Michigan State earlier this season as USC continued to struggle against the Big Ten’s upper echelon.

“Those teams, you know, if you don’t have your ‘A’ game,” Musselman said, “you’re not going to be able to compete with them and obviously we didn’t have a ‘C’ game tonight.”

Curiously, the Trojans (18–8 overall, 7–8 Big Ten) also continued a troubling pattern of playing worse at home this season. They have now dropped four games on their home court — as many as they have on the road. Two of the losses were to Northwestern and Washington, which have .500 or worse records.

“We haven’t played good basketball at home,” Musselman admitted. “We’ve got to figure out how we can play better basketball than what we have at home, and we can’t play like that offensively and defensively and give yourself a chance against a top-10 team in the country.”

The game’s opening play told the story of what was to come. Illinois center Tomislav Ivišić took a bounce pass for a dunk after USC counterpart Gabe Dynes got screened out of the way.

It was a move the Trojans had gone over in their preparation but were incapable of stopping. By halftime, USC was down 54–32 after having given up seven 3-pointers to the Illini (22–5, 13–3).

There was symmetry in that Illinois’ final basket came on an Ivišić lob dunk.

Orange-clad fans stood and roared, drowning out the few Trojans fans left.

What does it mean?

This was a massive opportunity lost for USC in its bid to strengthen its standing for the NCAA tournament.

The Trojans entered the day projected as the final No. 10 seed on Bracketmatrix.com, which aggregates predictions for the tournament. There’s certainly no shame in losing to a team as good as Illinois, but a victory could have elevated USC out of bubble territory.

Musselman said he thought the Trojans were an NCAA tournament team, adding one caveat.

“Not the way we played tonight,” he said.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

Turning point

When Illinois landed at Los Angeles International Airport.

Savoring a break from the Midwestern cold, the Illini also got to enjoy an easy victory before what felt like home game.

This team is clearly at a different level than USC, based on its size, quickness and savvy. Illinois forward Andrej Stojaković made six of seven shots and all nine free throws on the way to 22 points after returning from an ankle injury.

While it’s true that the Trojans were without guard Chad Baker-Mazara, who missed a third consecutive game with a strained knee, they were not competitive after the game’s opening minutes.

USC guard Alijah Arenas, who did not practice Tuesday due to illness, looked out of sorts on the way to scoring eight points on two-for-seven shooting in only 18 minutes.

MVP

The Illinois coaching staff’s challenge of a terrible call.

Late in the first half, Illini guard Kylan Boswell (12 points, eight assists) sprinted into the paint for a flying one-handed putback dunk. The basket was immediately waved off by an official even though the ball clearly came off the rim before Boswell got his hand on it.

Replays showed that the basket should count, forcing officials to overturn the call.

Up next

The Trojans get another home game against crumbling Oregon on Saturday before traveling across town to face UCLA on Tuesday in the first crosstown rivalry game of the season.