When USC junior guard Jordan Marsh threw up the 3-point attempt, he didn’t think it would go in. The shot was a culmination of almost 55 minutes of heated, back-and-forth play that featured 19 lead changes and five players fouling out between the USC (4-0) and Troy (4-3) Trojans. 

But, with just seconds left on the clock in triple overtime and USC down by two — the game would end one way or the other as the contested trey attempt would either give USC the win or fall short and allow Troy to cruise to victory.

“I thought [the defender] was gonna tip it, or I thought it was gonna hit all backboard,” Marsh said in a postgame news conference. “God came through.”

As the shot fell through the net, the crowd at Galen Center erupted as Marsh’s heroics pushed USC to a 107-106 win Thursday night, preserving the Trojans’ unbeaten record thus far.

USC entered this game after three straight wins by 20 or more points and was looking to keep that streak going, but Troy had something to say about that. Troy was physical on the glass throughout the game, outrebounding USC by 24, and had a plethora of second-chance opportunities thanks to 25 offensive rebounds.

The late-game chaos was contrasted with slow starts to tip off. Both teams were unable to break long scoring droughts early on and by halftime, USC and Troy were knotted at 29-29. Before Thursday’s game, USC hadn’t scored under 30 points in a half this season.

USC then shot up to an 11-point lead halfway through the second half thanks to senior forward Ezra Ausar, who scored 8 straight points for the team early in the half before sitting on the bench at the end of the period. Ausar finished the game with 22 points and seven rebounds. 

”I probably sat Ezra too much in the second half,” Head Coach Eric Musselman said in a postgame news conference. “When he came back in, he changed the game with playing with force.”

Troy answered USC’s lead with a 10-2 run of its own shortly thereafter, with Troy junior forward Victor Valdes — who finished the night with 24 points — leading the effort with consistent finishes at the rim that USC struggled to stop. 

“He’s strong, he knows how to lean his body into it,” Musselman said. “He’s a handful to guard.”

USC had a chance to close it out late in regulation, but graduate forward Chad Baker-Mazara missed a key free throw that could’ve made it a two-possession game. Troy sophomore guard Cooper Campbell, who dropped 32 points on six 3-pointers to go along with 12 rebounds, hit a contested fadeaway shot from beyond the arc to tie the game at 68-68 and force the first overtime period.

Despite the missed free throw, Baker-Mazara had a standout night, scoring a career-high 34 points alongside nine rebounds and five blocks. He has now set new career scoring highs in two of USC’s first four games. 

“The guys and the coaches put me in a great position to be able to score and the way they believe in me and give me that trust to help them elevate their own game,” Baker-Mazara said in a postgame news conference. “That’s helped me elevate my own game.”

Troy took a 6-point lead early in triple overtime through two 3-pointers from Campbell. After an Ausar bucket made it a four-point game, Campbell answered right back with an and-one that had Galen Center completely silent, and appeared to be the nail in the coffin for USC.

However, USC crawled back and cut the deficit to two with about eight seconds remaining. Attempting to clinch the victory, Troy threw the ball upcourt to close out the game, but USC junior guard Rodney Rice stole it to kickstart the sequence that ended in Marsh’s walkoff trey.

Despite the exciting finish, Musselman wasn’t excited about how the team performed, saying they should have taken control earlier on and not allowed Troy to stay in the game so long.

”We didn’t go celebrate in the locker [room], we got to get better,” Musselman said. “I’m concerned. I want to get better. I want to improve. But we won the game.”

USC will now head to Hawai’i as it takes on the Maui Invitational with a 4-0 record, facing a big early-season test before conference play begins. The first game will be Monday against Boise State (4-1) in Lahaina, Maui at 2 p.m. PST.