With a little under three minutes to play Saturday night, USC men’s basketball had gained a 2-point lead over No. 4 Purdue and was looking to close out a stunner against one of the top teams in the nation.

However, just like big Trojan leads of as many as 14 that defined the early part of the game, a poor stretch of shooting that saw USC make just three of its final nine shots quickly erased the late-game lead. 

Junior guard Jordan Marsh, missing back-to-back free throws in the final eight seconds to secure a Boilermaker win, was ultimately the final dagger in the loss.

When the dust settled in the energetic, back-and-forth affair, USC (14-4, 3-4 Big Ten) fell 69-64 to Purdue (17-1, 7-0), pushing the Trojans below 0.500 in Big Ten play and fighting for a spot in the NCAA tournament.

“Every game is difficult in this league,” Head Coach Eric Musselman said in a postgame news conference Saturday. “The fight, the scrappiness, toughness — it was there [tonight].”

Throughout the game, a visibly frustrated Musselman could be heard yelling at his players, mainly in response to the team’s shooting struggles.

After starting the game by shooting 2-for-4 on 3-pointers, they missed 15 of their next 16 shots from beyond the arc. On average, USC shot 34% on 3-pointers before Saturday’s disastrous outing.

Across 40 minutes, the Trojans went just a combined 5-for-14 on free throw attempts, with eight of their misses coming in the second half. This season, USC is in the top ten in the country in free throws attempted and made, with 27.8 attempts and 20 makes per game.

“I hope they’re working on their foul shooting,” Musselman said of the Trojans’ preparation for their next game. “It’s inexcusable.”

Baker-Mazara, Cofie lead struggling offense

While the shooting was subpar, there were several highlights from the game — notably, USC proved it could hold its own against a top team like Purdue.

One impactful player in the loss was graduate guard Chad Baker-Mazara, USC’s leading scorer, who came off the bench for the second straight game while dealing with a neck injury. He logged nearly 33 minutes Saturday, just over his game average for the season, and scored a team-high 15 points. While Baker-Mazara was moderately efficient from the floor, making 7-of-17 shots, he heavily struggled from 3-point land, making just 1-of-7 attempts.

Sophomore forward Jacob Cofie, USC’s leading rebounder averaging 6.8 per game, had another strong game on the glass, pulling down a career-high 15 rebounds to go along with an efficient 13 points for his fourth double-double of the season. Cofie made 6-of-9 shots from the field in a team-high 35 minutes.

“[I’m] playing with toughness [and] playing hard out there,” Cofie said in a postgame news conference. “I feel like I’m doing a good job coming down and helping our bigs rebound.”

Cofie and senior forward Ezra Ausar are the only Trojans to start every game this season, providing consistency in an otherwise unstable lineup as several key players navigate injuries.

Junior guard Rodney Rice, the Trojans’ leading scorer in their first six games, is out for the season, while senior forward Amarion Dickerson may return for the tail end of the season but is not close to a return. Freshman guard Alijah Arenas, 13th-ranked recruit by ESPN in the class of 2025, has yet to play.

Freshman guard Jerry Easter II was also notably missing from the game due to an illness, which hurt Musselman’s gameplan.

“[Easter] was a guy who was gonna guard Smith,” Musselman said. “He could have had an impact on this game defensively.”

While he sat out much of the first half, Ausar made his presence felt when he was on the court, especially late in the game. Ausar played almost the entire second half, going 4-for-6 on field goals and grabbing eight rebounds.

Ausar and junior center Gabe Dynes lit up the large crowd with multiple dunks each. Dynes, in his fourth start, finished with 8 points on 4-for-5 shooting while also adding one block.

Boilermaker players, fans take Galen by storm

Although Saturday’s matchup was a home game for USC, it felt more like West Lafayette than downtown Los Angeles at Galen Center. A total of over 8,500 fans — the most for a Trojan home game all season — packed the arena, with the majority being Purdue faithful. From tip-off until the final whistle, chants of “let’s go Boilers” chorused throughout the stands, especially during Purdue’s 30-10 run that brought them back into the game going into halftime.

Purdue senior guard Braden Smith, the NCAA assist leader, gave his fans plenty to cheer about, scoring a game-high 22 points, most of which came during an electric comeback effort in the first half.

“I would love to see Purdue without Braden Smith and see how good their shooting is, or without [senior guard] Fletcher Loyer, or how about both of them not on the floor,” Musselman said. 

Much of Purdue’s success this season has largely been thanks to Smith and a fellow senior, center Oscar Cluff, who also took it to the Trojans, scoring 19 points on an efficient 7-for-8 clip. He made the most of his time at the charity stripe, knocking down several late free throws to help close out the game for the Boilermakers.

Purdue finished the game shooting 73% from the line — more than double USC’s mark — and added seven 3-pointers in the 5-point victory.

On Monday, multiple outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, reported that Arenas is “probable” for Wednesday’s final game of USC’s homestand, per a source familiar with the situation, potentially giving the Trojans a massive scoring outlet that has been needed since Rice went down. Arenas, son of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, was the highest-ranking recruit in USC history and will bring a true point guard into the mix.

Arenas and the Trojans will take on a struggling Northwestern (8-10, 0-7) squad, which has lost five straight games, Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Galen Center.