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USC forward Ezra Ausar (2) dribbles during a Big Ten Conference college basketball game against the UTSA Roadrunners, Wednesday December 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, Calif.
LOS ANGELES — Ezra Ausar and Chad Baker-Mazara each scored double figures and led the USC Trojans offensively en route to a breezy 97-70 victory over the UTSA Roadrunners. With this win, the Trojans improve to 11-1 on the young season and are the only team besides Nebraska in the Big Ten with 11 wins.
To begin this contest, UTSA and USC were pretty much responding back and forth to each other, and at one point, the Roadrunners had themselves a 31-29 lead in the final three minutes of the first half. It wasn't until the Trojans took over the game from that point on and ended the first half on a 13-0 run and retake the lead, 40-31.
"You gotta play the guys that have the right frame of mind and want to compete and play unselfish, that's why we played so well," Head Coach Eric Musselman said on the difference between the first and second half play and why he decided to go into the second half with the same starting five that ended the first half.
Despite the slow start in the first half, Baker-Mazara amped up his intensity and notched 17 second-half points on 4-10 shooting. Baker-Mazara would finish his night with 20 points (5-13 shooting), 5 rebounds, and five assists.
Ausar would lead the Trojans' scoring-wise with 22 points in 31 minutes and recorded his first double-double of the season after snagging his 10th board in the second half.
No other performance was as superb as senior guard Ryan Cornish, who has really churned the pot as of late, but shone in this win, notching 18 points on 6-10 shooting, including going 4-8 from three-point range, and 4 rebounds in 27 minutes. During the last minutes of the game, Cornish was insinuating to his coaches on the bench that he wanted to sub out due to tiredness, but the Trojans' coaches insisted he stay and finish the remainder of the game.
"I've got to get into a little better of shape," Cornish said with a smile on his face when asked to reflect on the final minutes of the game and what was going on through his head when he was trying to grant a sub. "I asked for a sub because I was tired, and usually it's a good thing to ask for a sub, because it means you're showing your all."
The Trojans are entering their final week of non-conference play, as they managed to secure a game for Sunday after previously announcing that their last home game of December against Brown University was mutually agreed upon between the schools to be cancelled. USC will now face off against UCSC, a Division III school.
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