As USC junior guard Rodney Rice dribbled the ball near the 3-point line with about 30 seconds left in regulation Friday, he knew he was one play away from making history. 

Standing on the sideline, Head Coach Eric Musselman knew. 

Rice’s teammates standing beside him knew. His teammates on the bench were hardly sitting.

Nearly everybody at Intuit Dome knew.

Though the Trojans (3-0) had already built a lead more than sturdy enough to withstand any late-game antics from Illinois State University (1-2), Musselman, the team and the crowd were all locked in on Rice’s every move.

As he dribbled into the paint, Rice drove and dished to senior forward Ezra Ausar, who slammed a thunderous two-handed dunk. But, more important to Rice’s situation, it was the guard’s 10th assist of the night, the last stat he needed to complete his 21-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double — only the second ever by a USC player, following Daniel Hackett’s in 2007, and the first of Rice’s career.

“I was going for it for sure,” Rice said in a postgame news conference. “I was gonna get it.”

Rice’s historic performance helped lead the scorching-hot Trojans to an 87-67 win over the Redbirds as they remained undefeated in nonconference play.

“The best thing is just the joy in the locker room and postgame of guys celebrating [Rice’s] success,” Musselman said in a postgame news conference. “That’s important to a player when you can hit something like that that hadn’t been done at USC for a long time.”

Rice thriving at point guard

Though Rice has slightly struggled with efficiency this season, shooting about 38% from the field, he has already eclipsed 20 points twice, and his 56 total points are tied with graduate guard Chad Baker-Mazara for the team lead. On Friday, Rice shot 6-for-16 from the field and 2-for-5 from beyond the arc while adding seven free throws on eight attempts.

Musselman praised Rice’s ball-handling abilities after transitioning to point guard for USC after mostly playing shooting guard at Maryland over the last two seasons. Rice’s adaptability has been especially important with highly-touted freshman guard Alijah Arenas, who was expected to play significant minutes at point guard, still out with an injury.

While Musselman called moving Rice to point guard a “leap of faith” and “risky,” the Trojan guard said he feels comfortable at point guard, and the positional opportunity was a major reason for his transfer. Rice has had just one turnover in each of USC’s first three games.

“That’s always been my game,” Rice said. “I had a role to play last year, and it was a big role. But I have a great opportunity here where I can handle the ball more, make decisions and just be more of a point guard.” 

Dynes, Dickerson play big roles off the bench

Another standout Friday was junior center Gabe Dynes, who came off the bench to score 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting to go along with five rebounds, three blocks and a career-high three assists. Despite inconsistent playtime so far this season, Dynes has emerged as a block machine, packing at least two shots in each game so far.

Though he had only played a combined 15 minutes in the Trojans’ first two games, on Friday, Dynes played the third-most minutes on the team at 32, while starting forwards Ausar and graduate Terrance Williams II played 15 and 12, respectively. Dynes attributed the inconsistency to his playstyle, which he described as “matchup dependent.”

“I don’t think I took one dribble,” Dynes said in a postgame news conference. “It’s really based off how my teammates can give me the ball, and I’m always active defensively, so just doing what I should.”

Musselman said he particularly liked Dynes’ matchup against Illinois State junior forward Chase Walker, who was named to the Missouri Valley Conference First Team last season after averaging 15.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Walker was limited to 6 points on 2-for-10 shooting Friday.

“He was awesome on both sides,” Musselman said of Dynes.

Though he also came off the bench, senior forward Amarion Dickerson also saw significant playtime with 28 minutes, where he earned 9 points, including two dunks and six rebounds.

Defense shows strength, holes

While a Trojan win was hardly ever in doubt outside of a brief 7-5 Redbird lead in the first half that was squashed by a 9-point USC run, their efforts on both sides of the ball stalled near the beginning of the second half, allowing Illinois State to claw back slightly. Ausar scoring USC’s first eight points of the half was the only bright spot as the Redbirds brought the game within reach at 48-42.

Musselman pointed to Illinois State’s 17 offensive rebounds as a major area of improvement moving forward, especially after Cal Poly secured 17 of their own in the first game of the season. Of the Trojans’ nine offensive rebounds Friday, eight came from typical bench players — five from Dickerson and three from Dynes.

“Amarion really helps us in that aspect,” Musselman said. “But we need, across the board, to react to the amount of offensive rebounds that we’ve given up.” 

The Trojan offense was rounded out by Baker-Mazara, who had the second-most points in the game with 18 on 7-for-13 shooting; Ausar, who scored 13 points in limited minutes on a perfect 4-for-4 from the field, though he struggled at 5-for-11 from the free throw line; and sophomore forward Jacob Cofie, who scored 8 points on 3-for-8 shooting in 32 minutes.

USC will return to Galen Center on Thursday to face Troy University (3-1) at 7 p.m. before heading to the Southwest Maui Invitational the week after in Lahaina, Hawai‘i.