{"id":455138,"date":"2025-12-18T08:26:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/455138\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T08:26:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:26:15","slug":"usc-learns-rodney-rice-is-out-for-season-before-beating-texas-san-antonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/455138\/","title":{"rendered":"USC learns Rodney Rice is out for season before beating Texas San Antonio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Through a near-perfect nonconference slate, no matter what was thrown USC\u2019s way, whether injuries or other unforeseen circumstances, the Trojans had never lacked for life on the court. It was that endless energy that had helped power them to a 10-1<\/a> start.<\/p>\n

But for a while Wednesday, that vigor was conspicuously absent against Texas San Antonio, a team that lost four of its last five. Maybe it was the setting, in a mostly empty and eerily quiet Galen Center. Maybe it was the \u201cdevastating\u201d news from earlier in the day, as USC<\/a> announced that point guard Rodney Rice would undergo shoulder surgery and miss the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

Whatever it was, USC was eventually able to shake it off Wednesday night, turning a deficit late in the first half to a convincing, 97-70 victory<\/a> over San Antonio in the second.<\/p>\n

The blip, however brief, would beg questions of how a short-handed roster might handle the brutal Big Ten slate that awaits USC in two weeks\u2019 time. The Trojans start that stretch with an especially savage span that includes three top-10 teams in No. 2 Michigan, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 6 Purdue. Whether they can weather that stretch without three players coaches expected to be top contributors should say a lot about where the Trojans are headed this season.<\/p>\n

\"Chad <\/p>\n

Chad Baker-Mazara reacts after scoring on an offensive rebound in the first half.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout them, we\u2019re going to have to grind and play so hard to win games,\u201d coach Eric Musselman said. \u201cWe have a lot to clean up, and we have to exceed the opposition from a playing-hard standpoint. We\u2019re undermanned. We don\u2019t have Alijah Arenas. We don\u2019t have Rodney Rice. And we don\u2019t have Amarion Dickerson. That\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

That grind was the focus of Musselman\u2019s message to his team at halftime Wednesday, after USC had come out looking unusually lifeless. Through the game\u2019s first 15 minutes, the Trojans were outhustled and outworked on the glass as the Roadrunners drew fouls, forced turnovers and racked up seven early offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n

With 3:38 remaining in the first half, they were still trailing the 4-6 Roadrunners, who in their last two had lost to Alabama by 42 and Colorado by 24.<\/p>\n

But when the Trojans finally turned it on, in the final minutes of the first half, there was no stopping the onslaught. Ryan Cornish hit a jumper. Ezra Ausar took a steal to the hoop. Chad Baker-Mazara dunked home a missed three. USC finished the first half on a 13-0 run and took control from there.<\/p>\n

It did so in the same fashion it had in pretty much every game since Rice went down, by leaning on Baker-Mazara and Ausar, who are averaging a combined 38 points per game.<\/p>\n

Both emerged like a shot of adrenaline after halftime. Mazara poured in 17 second-half points to give him 20 total for the game, while Ausar, the nation\u2019s leader in free-throw attempts, continued bullying defenders in the paint.<\/p>\n

Ausar finished with a game-high 22 points and added 10 rebounds, giving him his first double-double of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy energy is contagious, and humbly, once I\u2019m going, everybody is going,\u201d Ausar said. \u201cIf my energy ain\u2019t right, my team\u2019s energy ain\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be especially critical next month, with a series of bruising Big Ten frontcourts awaiting the Trojans.<\/p>\n

\u201cEzra is going to keep getting better,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cHis basketball future is so bright. He hasn\u2019t even tipped what he\u2019s going to be. \u2026 We\u2019re gonna rely on Ezra to keep this group together and be a leader, and he\u2019s done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arenas returns to practice in the coming days and will hopefully be ready to go by mid-January. Others will have to make the mark, until then, if USC hopes to survive that stretch short-handed.<\/p>\n

Against San Antonio, it was Cornish who answered the call. The Dartmouth transfer had played more than 15 minutes in a game just once this season before Wednesday. But in his first start at point guard, Cornish came alive with 18 points, including four three-pointers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was at the bottom of the roster almost, and he\u2019s earned what he\u2019s getting,\u201d Musselman said. \u201cWe need people to step up, and we need to develop our roster the best that we possibly can, and Ryan\u2019s a great example of someone stepping up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through a near-perfect nonconference slate, no matter what was thrown USC\u2019s way, whether injuries or other unforeseen circumstances,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":455139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[208574,5229,208572,208575,124538,1910,78357,19176,208573,449,208571,7202,7203,5950,358,140349,36418,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,11016,2452],"class_list":{"0":"post-455138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-aerial-display","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-ezra-ausar","11":"tag-first-double-double","12":"tag-first-half","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-halftime","15":"tag-injury","16":"tag-other-unforeseen-circumstance","17":"tag-point","18":"tag-rodney-rice","19":"tag-san-antonio","20":"tag-sanantonio","21":"tag-season","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-texas-san-antonio","24":"tag-trojans","25":"tag-tx","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa","32":"tag-usc","33":"tag-week"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115739623579840796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}