Jacob Cofie posted a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double and Ezra Ausar scored a team-high 21 points to lead Southern California to a 78-75 win over visiting Rutgers on Saturday in Los Angeles.

The Trojans (16-6, 5-6 Big Ten) led nearly wire-to-wire and by double-digits for much of the game, jumping out to a 20-8 advantage on the strength of a 16-4 run.

USC kept Rutgers (9-13, 2-9) at a distance throughout with its defense, holding the Scarlet Knights to just 39.2% shooting (29 of 74) from the floor. The Trojans leveraged Rutgers’ shooting woes into a 40-33 rebounding edge, led by Cofie’s fourth game with at least 10 boards in USC’s last five outings.

The Trojans appeared poised to blow the game open just before the final media timeout of the second half. After the Scarlet Knights pulled to within eight points, USC erupted for an 11-2 run.

Ausar bookended the run with three made foul shots, the last capping an and-one that pushed the Trojans lead to 74-57 with 4:34 remaining. But Rutgers responded by chipping away at the deficit behind Tariq Francis’ efforts.

Francis scored nine of his game-high 26 points in the final 2:23, fueling a Scarlet Knights run of 18-4 to close the game. He concluded his burst with a pull-up jumper to move Rutgers to within a one-score margin with 36 seconds remaining, and the Scarlet Knights regained possession with a chance to force overtime.

However, the Trojans’ Chad Baker-Mazara came away with a steal from Francis that prevented Rutgers from getting a look at a potential game-tying shot. It was one of only eight turnovers the Scarlet Knights committed on the night — less than half the 17 that USC coughed up — but came at an inopportune time.

Baker-Mazara accounted for a quarter of Rutgers’ turnovers with two steals, punctuating his 17-point performance. He shot 7 of 15 from the floor to help the Trojans to a 51% effort as a team.

USC’s free-throw shooting proved critical, with the Trojans connecting on 22 of 30 to just 9 of 12 for Rutgers.

–Field Level Media