USC Men's Basketball Wins The 2025 Southwest Maui Invitational

Wednesday, November 26

Lahaina, Maui, Hawai'i

11:30 a.m. PT

USC

7-0,0-0Big Ten

Arizona State

6-2,0-0Big 12

Southern California

Arizona St.

2025 Southwest Maui Invitational Champions

USC Men's Basketball Wins The 2025 Southwest Maui Invitational

November 26, 2025 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Highlights Press Conference

Chad Baker-Mazara earns MVP honors after scoring 23 points against Arizona State.

MAUI, Hawai'i — USC Men's Basketball (7-0) beat the Arizona State Sun Devils (6-2) 88-75 to win the Southwest Maui Invitational Championships on Wednesday, Nov. 26. This is the first time USC has won a multi-team event since winning the 2017 Diamond Head Classic title.

After playing two close, defense-heavy games, the USC Trojans connected on 60.7% of their field goals and 40.9% of their threes. USC flexed its depth by outscoring ASU's bench 31-23 and four players finished in double-figures. Additionally, USC's defense held Arizona State to shooting just 32% from three — the Sun Devil's second-worst shooting night of the year. The Trojans also won the battle of the boards 32-21.

Chad Baker-Mazara led all scorers with 23 points on 9-for-15 shooting, while Jaden Brownell had his finest game as a Trojan by scoring 16 points off the bench. Ezra Ausar continued his stretch of solid play with 14 points and six rebounds while shooting at 100% from the field. Jacob Cofie flirted with a double-double by scoring 11 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

HOW IT HAPPENED
USC fell into an early hole after Arizona State hit a pair of threes on back-to-back possessions. But USC kept pace thanks to Chad Baker-Mazara, who scored five of USC's first seven points, before Ezra Ausar's mid-range jumper tied the game at nine with just under 16 minutes to go. Arizona State built a 12-9 lead and USC's offense stalled until Ausar split a pair of free throws to make it a one-possession game.

With 13:25 to go in the first half, USC went on a 6-0 run with back-to-back Jaden Brownell threes to take a 16-12 lead, but ASU answered with a triple of their own on the other end. The game went back and forth and neither team led by more than five for the next five minutes. However, Brownell continued giving USC critical minutes off the bench by scoring 10 first half points to help the Trojans keep pace with the Sun Devils.

Leading 29-27 out of the under-8 media timeout, the Trojans drew up a play for Jacob Cofie, who got fouled on a dunk. His free throw gave USC a 32-27 advantage. The Trojans earned their largest lead in the first half with a Terrance Williams II layup to make the score 34-28 with under six minutes to go. Although the Sun Devils clawed back to tie the game at 39 with a three-point play, a Gabe Dynes dunk helped USC reclaim a 41-39 lead with 1:49 to go in the half. After a back-and-forth final few minutes, Williams made a layup with 13 seconds left to tie the game at 43 heading into halftime.

USC kicked off the second half with a 5-0 run capped off by an Ausar steal that led to an Easter layup to make it a 48-43 ballgame. The Trojans maintained their five-point lead off a Baker-Mazara three with 16:27 left, and a deep Baker-Mazara two gave USC a 55-47 lead — its largest of the game at that point. While ASU tried getting back into the game, Baker-Mazara scored USC's next five points before a pair of Cofie free throws put the Trojans up 60-55.

Just as they did in the first half, Baker-Mazara and Brownell stayed hot for the Trojans. The duo went on a 5-0 run to push USC's lead to 66-59 with about 10 minutes left. Whenever ASU threatened to go on a run, Brownell answered — first with a three-point play and then with his third three of the afternoon.

An Ausar layup with 5:54 left put USC up 75-66 — its largest lead of the contest. He would then give the Trojans their first double-digit lead on the next possession to make it a 77-66 game. The final four minutes saw the USC defense put the clamps down on ASU by forcing three late turnovers. Seven points from Jordan Marsh down the stretch helped the Trojans cruise to a 88-75 win.

NOTABLES

Chad Baker-Mazara put on a show in Maui, becoming the first player to win back-to-back Southwest Maui Invitationals on his way to being named as the tournament's MVP. He posted his third 20+ point game this season, which is the same number of 20+ point games he had all of last season. He also recorded a season-high four 3-pointers and dished out a season-high four assists.
Hot off the bench, Jaden Brownell was the first Trojan to reach double figures in the first half. He finished the game with a season-high 16 points, knocking down three triples.
Jacob Cofie showed up for the Trojan defense, finishing the game with eight rebounds and tying his career-high of three blocks for the fifth time in seven games. He has recorded at least one block in all seven games this season. He also finished with 11 points.
Amarion Dickerson reached a career milestone tonight, surpassing 500 career points. He filled the stat sheet with five rebounds, four points, a block and a steal.
This is the sixth time in seven games that both Baker-Mazara and Ausar finished with double-digit points.
Jordan Marsh pulled down a season-high four rebounds while adding on nine points and four assists.
Every Trojan who checked into the game scored. This is the first time this has happened this season, and for the first time since Nov. 7, 2024 against Idaho State.
USC's 7-0 start is the best start since the 2022-23 season.
This is the first time this season USC has used the lineup of Jerry Easter II, Terrance Williams II, Ezra Ausar, Jacob Cofie and Chad Baker-Mazara. This lineup is now 1-0.
USC is now 63-44 in the all-time series against Arizona State, and Eric Musselman is 2-0 against the Sun Devils.

QUOTABLES
Coach Eric Musselman on the team's mentality…
"When you coach a team, you're always mentally thinking about, you know, positives, things that could go wrong. Right now, we're building, like, a super confident mentality."

Coach Eric Musselman on starting conference play…
"We do have two really tough conference games coming up. When you hit six in a row or seven in a row, you got to guard yourself about feeling good, and you've got to have some grittiness and some desperation, which we'll need on the road at Oregon."

Chad Baker-Mazara on winning MVP…
"Ain't nobody could tell me nothing, right? Thanks to the guys and the coach for putting us in position to be able to become successful. You know, I really feel amazing right now. Got our job done. Coach is proud of us, family, proud of us. You know, I'm feeling on top of the world right now."

Chad Baker-Mazara on winning three close games in three days…
"Just, who wants it more at the end of the day? We all tired, we all fatigued, we all hurting. But at the end of the day, who wants it more? Me and the guys and Coach just kept being in our ears, like, come on, last guy, leave it all right now. Promise it's gonna be worth it. And we listened to the coach and followed his game plan, and came out to victory."

Jaden Brownell on his shooting game…
"Me and my dad got a saying: If you're on, shoot. If you're off, shoot until you're on. My players, my teammates, and my coach trust me. I work on that shot every day, and they trust me enough to be able to take that shot. So shout out to my teammates."

UP NEXT
USC will return to the mainland to prepare for its first Big Ten game of the season, heading north to face the Ducks of Oregon. Tip-off will be at 7 p.m. in Eugene. Fans can watch all of the action on FS1 or listen on ESPN LA 710.