On Wednesday night, Head Coach Eric Musselman was angry. He slapped the scoring table twice, gestured wildly at the court more times than one could count and repeatedly sighed angrily at both his team and the officiating crew during USC’s matchup with University of Texas at Arlington. It was that sort of game for the Trojans, one defined by an amalgamation of mistakes that proved costly when their opponents got hot.

And get hot they did, with UT Arlington hitting three-pointers at an absurd rate — knocking down 16 of 24 attempts. While USC powered through to a razor-thin 98-95 victory, the cracks appeared. The ability to stop outside shooting is paramount in modern basketball, and the Trojans were unable to stop their opponents from going to the three-point well over and over again.

“Defensively, we have some things that we really have to get better at,” a much-cooled-down Musselman said in a post-game press conference. “We weren’t guarding for three, we weren’t guarding off the dribble drive and we were fouling, so those are three areas that we really have to get better at.”

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But, as proven by the Trojans’ 3-0 start to the season, not all is lost. In fact, with the Trojans still very much transitioning to the Musselman era, as well as accumulating 16 new players on the roster, the team will only mesh better with time.

“You know, we only have been together for five months. We just need to make sure that everyone’s together in practice, everyone’s getting reps together and just keep grinding at it,” said graduate forward Josh Cohen.

Cohen, a transfer from the University of Massachusetts, has been a key player for the team this season. He had 19 points in Wednesday’s game, second on the team only to junior point guard Desmond Claude. Cohen is seemingly fitting right in on this new-look Trojan team, being vocal on the bench and pulling out the victory sign regularly in post-game celebrations.

However, the 6-foot-10 Cohen is playing as a small-ball center for the Trojans, and his glass game left something to be desired, picking up only one rebound against the Mavericks.

“Obviously, if you’re in the center spot and play 21 minutes, you know we need [you] to have more than one rebound. That’s an area that we have to get better at,” Musselman said.

Inarguable, though, is Claude’s role as a leader in Musselman’s rebuild. Claude recorded a team-high 26 points in Wednesday’s matchup, along with eight assists and five rebounds.

But, as is seemingly the status quo for USC athletics, forced situational adjustments have affected Claude’s playstyle. He and his teammates are still working to grow into their new roles as the season progresses. A transfer from Xavier University, Claude pushed through any growing pains in the second half, firing on all cylinders to pull out the win for the Trojans.

“We made a decision to slide [Claude] over there [to point guard],” Musselman said. “[Graduate forward Saint Thomas] is kind of the de facto point guard, but we think [Claude] is continuing to learn the spot.”

On the Mavericks’ side, graduate guard Jaden Wells shined, leading the game with 27 points, knocking down 7 three-pointers. Right behind him, junior forward Jaxon Ellingsworth was also lethal from behind the arc, knocking down four of five attempts.

“We led for 33 minutes, and they led for three minutes,” said Musselman. “Obviously, a closer game than we would like, but both games, you hope that these close games can kind of help you gain confidence in late-game situations once the year continues to unfold.”

Other standouts for the Trojans were graduate forward Terrance Williams II, appearing in his first game of the season recovering from a back injury, and sophomore guard Wesley Yates III, who had 14 points on 6-9 shooting against the Mavericks.

Even with the victory, defensive issues led to a lack of separation between the Trojans and the Mavericks, a similar story to USC’s narrow win over Idaho State University. But, as the team continues to mesh, the Musselman era looks bright with a gleaming 3-0 start.

USC plays at home once again in its next nonconference bout, taking on former Pacific-12 rival UC Berkeley at Galen Center on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.