The California Golden Bears came out swinging Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion, but USC’s size, second-chance work and late answers carried the Trojans to a 77-65 win.
Cal briefly looked like it might set the tone early. The Bears opened with a quick burst, capped by a Sammie Yeanay steal and transition dunk that pushed them ahead 9-2 and got the building roaring. But USC settled in, turned the game into a physical fight and gradually took control behind its work on the glass and a steady stream of easy looks around the rim.
Yeanay gave Cal a spark all night and finished with 14 points, while Nojus Indrusaitis added 13. Still, the Bears spent most of the game chasing USC, and the biggest reason was impossible to miss: the Trojans owned the rebounding battle from start to finish.
“I thought the difference in the game was the 50-50 balls and they absolutely destroyed us on the glass,” Madsen told the press after the loss.
USC finished with 53 rebounds, including 19 offensive boards, while Cal had 36. That gap kept possessions alive for the Trojans and repeatedly erased Cal’s defensive stands. Indrusaitis put it bluntly afterward.
“It was rebounding and 50-50 balls, they got literally every single one,” Indrusaitis said after the game “We’ve got to do better and we will do better.”
The first half was scrappy and low-scoring, with neither team finding much rhythm from the field or from three. USC’s Rodney Rice led all scorers in the half with 12 points, while Yeanay paced Cal with nine.
Michael Cooper also gave the Bears a lift, scoring seven first-half points and knocking down a jab step three in transition. Cal led 16-12 before USC started to chip away.
The Trojans’ first lead came at 21-20, and after Eric Musselman successfully challenged a ball tipped out of bounds, USC followed with a post score to go up 23-20. That sequence helped swing the half.
Jacob Cofie then finished an easy dunk off a missed assignment to stretch the lead to 29-24, and USC closed the half on a 7-0 run as Cal went cold. The Bears went to the locker room down 38-30.
Cal’s shooting numbers told part of the story. The Bears hit just 33.3 percent from the field and 14.3 percent from three in the first half, yet the game was still within reach.
The second half followed a similar script. Both teams endured long stretches without a field goal, but USC’s offense began to find cleaner paths by moving the ball well against Cal’s high screen traps. The Trojans also kept cashing in at the line, with Rice going 4-for-4 as USC built its largest lead to that point, 51-40, with under 15 minutes left.
Cal kept fighting. Indrusaitis hit a three, then a bank shot from the short corner to pull the Bears within six.
Mantas Kocanas then forced a steal, and Indrusaitis converted free throws to trim the margin to four. Later, after Alijah Arenas scored on a bank shot from the post and then a mid-range jumper to put USC up 57-51, he missed two free throws.
Indrusaitis answered with a three on the other end, bringing Haas Pavilion to life and cutting it to three.
But USC kept answering. The Trojans repeatedly broke Cal’s trap and found easy finishes near the basket, and with under five minutes left Cofie faked a pass to the corner and walked into a dunk to make it 69-59. Cal then went through another extended drought, this one lasting three and a half minutes, and never mounted a final push.
Arenas led all scorers with 19 points, Rice had 18 and KJ Lewis added 16 for USC. Cofie finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds, a line that reflected exactly how the Trojans controlled the night. Cal also had just seven turnovers, but USC’s defense still made life difficult by closing hard on shooters and challenging shots at the rim.
Yeanay said the Bears knew what was beating them.
“He’s good on the boards, so we were supposed to be more aggressive and keep him off the glass,” Yeanay said. “He had 15 rebounds. We have to be better as bigs and be more aggressive in that part of the game.”
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Cal Let A Huge Opportunity Slip Against Ranked USC
Cal had a chance to make a statement at Haas Pavilion against 21st-ranked USC, but the Bears could not quite turn a competitive night into a breakthrough. In a 77-65 loss, Sammie Yeanay led Cal with 14 points and Nojus Indrusaitis added 13, while USC got balanced scoring from Alijah Arenas, Rodney Rice and KJ Lewis to keep the pressure on throughout.
The Bears also had to navigate the absence of center Lee Dort because of an ankle injury, leaving them without an important interior presence in a game where every possession mattered. Cal stayed within reach for stretches, but USCs offense found enough answers to keep the Bears from fully cashing in on what had been a big opportunity. [Read more 🡒]
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California had enough stretches at Haas Pavilion to stay within reach, but USC controlled the kind of possessions that tend to decide games in February. The Trojans left with a 77-65 win after repeatedly winning the battle for rebounds and loose balls, an edge that Cal head coach Mark Madsen pointed to as a major reason the Bears could not flip the night in their favor. Even as Sammie Yeanay and Nojus Indrusaitis tried to keep the offense moving, Cal never found the efficiency it needed to turn those efforts into a real push.
The frustrating part for the Bears was that the game did not feel out of hand because of one explosive USC run so much as a steady accumulation of second chances and extra possessions. Cal struggled to make enough shots to offset the damage on the glass, and once USC established that physical edge, the Bears were left chasing the scoreboard without much margin for error. For a team trying to build momentum at home, it was the sort of loss that lingers because the fix is obvious even if the answer is not easy. [Read more 🡒]
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The bigger question from this one was not the result, but how secure Cal looked after such a strong opening. Charleston briefly made things uncomfortable in the second quarter, and while the Bears answered enough to protect the lead, the game offered a reminder that early separation does not always erase the need for cleaner stretches later. Dowell and Twidale provided the scoring punch, but Cal will still have to sort out the rough patches if it wants that home dominance to keep looking as comfortable as the final score suggested. [Read more 🡒]