LOS ANGELES – USC just can’t stop the bleeding.
The Trojans lost for the 12th time in their past 13 games Thursday night, falling to Cal, 75-49, at Galen Center. A close contest at halftime swung in the Golden Bears’ favor when USC’s leading scorer, Maurice Jones, had to go to the bench to get treatment for his bloodied left hand.
Jones had been hot in the first half, making 5 of 6 shots for 11 points as the Trojans hung with the Bears and trailed by only six at intermission. But Cal, with twice as many healthy players, was twice as good as USC in the second half, outscoring the Trojans, 40-20.
“It just felt like a rerun,” said Jones, who finished with a team-high 17 points.
USC’s loss at Washington on Saturday followed the same script. The Trojans trailed by 10 with 12:33 remaining and lost by 28, unable to keep pace with a deeper, more experienced opponent.
Jones is the only one of USC’s six available scholarship players who entered this season having played significant minutes at the Division I level.
“There’s just a bunch of new guys out there,” Jones said. “There isn’t anybody out there with any experience. They’re all kind of learning as they go. You can’t really blame them. They’re all new to this.”
Cal, meanwhile, has a veteran core led by seniors Jorge Gutierrez and Harper Kamp and sophomore Allen Crabbe. Kamp and Crabbe combined for 37 points on 17-of-23 shooting as the Golden Bears (19-6, 9-3 Pac-12) moved into a tie for first place in conference play.
“They’re a better team,” USC coach Kevin O’Neill said. “There’s a reason they’re leading the league.”
The Trojans are in last place at 6-19, 1-11. They last lost as many as 19 games in 1998.
When Jones is on the floor, USC at least has a puncher’s chance. But he missed several minutes early in the second half after driving to the basket, bumping into Kamp and falling hard to the floor.
Kamp blocked O’Neill’s view of the play, but that didn’t stop him from complaining to the officials.
“I was pretending I thought he was fouled,” O’Neill said. “I couldn’t tell. I see a guy get knocked to the floor and he’s bleeding, that would indicate to me that something transpired. I’m not sure what it was.”
When Jones went to the bench, Cal’s lead was 38-32. By the time O’Neill called time out with 13:22 left, it was 53-36.
NOTES
Crabbe, who played at Price High of Los Angeles, had a large contingent of friends and family members rooting him on in Section 108. …
Jones and James Blasczyk combined to make 11 of 17 shots. The rest of the team was 10 of 45. …
The Trojans will take Friday off before resuming practice Saturday. They play host to Stanford at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.