Following a narrow upset loss to Washington State (12-5, 3-3 Pac-12) over the weekend, the No. 12 Arizona Wildcats were looking for a bounce-back win, which they achieved against the severely undermanned Trojans Wednesday night at McKale Memorial Center. Despite not sinking a field goal for close to seven minutes in the first half, Arizona found momentum heading into halftime and ran away with the win.

Without freshman guard Isaiah Collier and fifth-year guard Boogie Ellis, who are both dealing with hand injuries, the Trojans (8-10, 2-5 Pac-12) had trouble finding a primary scoring option.

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Freshman guard Bronny James made his second career start and drastically improved from his recent performances. James played 30 minutes — the most in his collegiate career — and recorded his first career block while also posting career-highs of six assists and five rebounds.

“Without Boogie and Isaiah, our two primary lead guards, Bronny has done a nice job of being the primary ball handler when he’s in the game and defending at a pretty good level,” said Head Coach Andy Enfield. “[James] started out very well tonight and we just need him to keep improving.”

James appeared to be much more confident shooting the ball against the Wildcats (13-4, 4-2 Pac-12), as his 11 field goal attempts were also a career-high. James capped off his terrific 9-point first-half performance with a long-range 3-pointer to cut Arizona’s lead to a manageable 4. While his early efforts kept the Trojans in the game, the freshman went quiet in the second half, scoring just 2 points.

Graduate forward DJ Rodman led USC with a season-high 16 points on an efficient 60% from the floor. Along with James, Rodman made shots to make the game close in the final moments of the first half, but the Wildcats swung the momentum to retake a double-digit lead at the break.

While the Wildcats had their share of non-optimal moments, they got back on track when they needed to. The Trojans’ inability to exploit Arizona’s stretches of sloppy play proved to be detrimental, as the Wildcats found their footing after the game became close on a few different occasions.

Arizona’s senior guard Caleb Love erupted for 20 points and hit five shots from beyond the arc in the process. Love was responsible for helping the Wildcats extend their lead in the early moments of the second half. After a Rodman and-one conversion almost six minutes into the second half — USC didn’t score for nearly four minutes — the Wildcats went on a 7-0 run, effectively putting the game out of reach.

Senior guard Pelle Larsson also stepped up big for the Wildcats, posting 13 points and only missing three shots from the field. Senior forward Keshad Johnson had a stout double-double performance and sophomore guard Jaden Bradley displayed a defensive masterclass with five steals.

As USC sits toward the bottom of the Pac-12, it will surely hope for speedy recoveries for both Ellis and Collier, while in the meantime developing James into a reliable scorer. The Trojans must also prevent collapsing in the second half, as they fell apart down the stretch in all three losses in their current losing streak.

Nonetheless, even with such a shorthanded roster at the moment, the Trojans were able to put up a good fight against a Wildcats team that has been historically dominant following regular-season losses. Arizona is 13-0 when coming off of losses in its last three seasons.

“I was proud of our guys. They competed, they played hard,” Enfield said. “We made some mistakes, but we outplayed Arizona in certain areas of the game and they outplayed us in certain areas of the game.”

The Trojans’ next test will be the Arizona State Sun Devils (10-7, 4-2 Pac-12), who are also hungry to get back in the win column. USC will attempt to snap its losing streak at Desert Financial Arena on Saturday at 11 a.m.