USC men's basketball gets nothing going on the road in blowout loss

The No. 24 Trojans took a tough 96-66 loss to the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines in the first of three games on USC’s extended Big Ten road trip. With the defeat, the Trojans dropped to 12-2 overall and 1-2 in conference play.

The Trojans struggled all night to keep up with a Wolverines squad that’s a national championship contender. The Wolverines jumped out to an 11-0 lead to start the game and rode that momentum the rest of the way.

USC shot just 34% from the field and an even worse 21% from three-point range. Jaden Brownell led all Trojan scorers with 16 points, while Ezra Ausar and Chad Baker-Mazara added 15 and 12 points, respectively. The Trojans stayed relatively close in the rebounding battle, losing 35-40, but they allowed a staggering 47% shooting percentage and gave up 39 free throw attempts.

This was the Trojans’ worst loss of the season in terms of point differential, largely due to getting crushed in the paint. The Wolverines outscored them 46-24 inside, and coughing up the ball 21 times definitely didn’t make things any easier.

The Trojans continue their road trip with a matchup against Michigan State on Jan. 5, airing on FS1 at 5:30 p.m. PT (8:30 p.m. ET). This should be a much more manageable matchup, but USC will need to fix itself if it hopes to get anything out of this road trip. The Trojans can’t afford to dig too big of a hole in conference play if they want to make a run at things come March.