USC Men’s Basketball Narrowly Falls 69-64 to No. 5 Purdue

Saturday, January 17

Los Angeles, Calif.

3 p.m.

USC

14-4,3-4Big Ten

Purdue

17-1,7-0Big Ten

Purdue

Southern California

USC Men’s Basketball Narrowly Falls 69-64 to No. 5 Purdue

January 17, 2026 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Press Conference

Jacob Cofie notched his fourth double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds.

LOS ANGELES — USC Men's Basketball (14-4, 3-4 Big Ten) fell short 69-64 against No. 5 Purdue (17-1, 7-0 Big Ten) at Galen Center on Saturday, Jan. 17.

Thanks to an early 16-0 run, the Trojans led by as many as 14 in the first half and limited Purdue to 41.8% from the field, one of its lowest-shooting performances this season. Although Purdue came back to shoot 33.3% from three, the Trojans connected just 15% of their threes and 35.7% of their free throws.

Chad Baker-Mazara led the Trojans with 15 points and three blocks. Jacob Cofie earned his fourth double-double of the season with 13 points and 15 rebounds, while Ezra Ausar added 11 points to go along with eight rebounds. USC owned the rebounding advantage 40-32 and field goal shooting, shooting a nearly 46 percent clip from the floor.

HOW IT HAPPENED
In the first minutes of action, the Trojans took a 6-2 lead after finding success in the paint and scoring points off turnovers. Ezra Ausar dropped the first basket of the game off a feed from Ryan Cornish as Jacob Cofie put in another layup at the rim. From there, the Trojans caused a turnover on the other end that resulted in a USC bucket. The Boilermakers hit back-to-back three-pointers to grab the first lead of the game, 8-6, but that would be their last basket for the next seven minutes.

The Trojans shot out on a 16-0 run that saw all five Trojans on the court score. Chad Baker-Mazara sparked the surge with a lefty floater, and Cofie regained the lead with a corner three. Jordan Marsh shook off his defender in the paint and dropped a floater in — on the next possession, he split a trap and lobbed it to Gabe Dynes, who grabbed it from the sky and hung it on the rim. Baker-Mazara bookended the run, picked off a Boilermaker, and sailed coast to coast to round out a double-digit lead. With 10 minutes to play, USC held a 22-8 advantage.

But shots started falling for Purdue, as they answered with an 8-0 run. Dynes snapped the four-and-a-half-minute scoring drought with a dunk, making it 24-16 at the seven-minute mark. The Trojans and Boilermakers went shot-for-shot over the next two minutes with Baker-Mazara laying in a pair of baskets. Purdue's Braden Smith singlehandedly scored the last eight points of the half, and the Boilermakers led 38-32 at the break.

USC went on an 11-2 run to start the second half, which was highlighted by a Baker-Mazara steal, who passed the rock back-and-forth with Cofie down the lane lines to regain the lead at 43-42.

It would remain a one-possession game the rest of the way with four lead changes. Purdue tied the game 54-all with a three-pointer at 8:46, before taking a 57-54 lead shortly after. Responding with a brief run, Kam Woods drove to the basket for a layup, then Ausar's two buckets gave USC the 60-57 lead.

However, in the last three minutes, Purdue outscored USC 12-4, with eight of those points coming from the free throw line. The Boilermakers held onto their lead and pulled away for the 69-64 win.

NOTABLES

Jacob Cofie grabbed his fourth double-double of the season and seventh of his career on 13 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. He also had three assists, one block and one steal.
Ezra Ausar earned double-figures for the Trojans, despite only playing five minutes in the first half. He ended the game with 11 points and eight rebounds.
Chad Baker-Mazara was the first Trojan of the game to reach double-digits, finishing the night with 15 points. He also filled the stat sheet with five rebounds, three assists, three blocks and one steal.
Kam Woods put up a season high of eight points, shooting 2-2 from the free throw line.
The Trojans outscored the Boilermakers 40-28 in the paint.
With 69 points in total and 31 in the second half, this is the second-lowest amount of points Purdue has scored in a game this season.
Purdue is averaging 51.8% from the field, and the Trojans held them to only 41.8%. The Trojans also held Purdue's leading scorer, Braden Smith, to only four points in the second half.
USC is now 4-6 all-time against Purdue and Coach Musselman is now 0-3 against the Boilermakers.
Tonight's starting lineup featured Kam Woods, Ryan Cornish, Jacob Cofie, Ezra Ausar and Gabe Dynes. This lineup is now 1-1 on the season.

QUOTABLES
Coach Eric Musselman on competing with a top-five team…
"The fight, the toughness, the scrappiness…it's there. You don't out-rebound Purdue if you're not playing with toughness and size."

Coach Eric Musselman on improving for future games…
"All we can do is get our guys to play as hard as they possibly can, which I think they did. We have to clean up the small execution stuff. But it's inexcusable to shoot 35% from the free-throw line in a college basketball game."

Jacob Cofie on the locker room's response to the loss…
" We have to go back to the drawing board and figure this out. I mean, we can't have constant turnovers like that. I feel like we'll be better in the future."

Jacob Cofie on the Trojans' lead against the number five team in the nation…
" I feel like we can beat anyone if we play our game. We have a lot of talent on our team, still with injuries, and I feel like we can be good, too."

Jacob Cofie on getting better after his fourth double-double of the season…
" Just playing with toughness, playing hard out there. I feel like I've been doing a good job coming down and helping our bigs rebound. I've been playing the three as well, so that helps us rebound a lot."

UP NEXT
USC will finish out this homestand against the Northwestern Wildcats on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Tip-off will be at 8 p.m. inside the Galen Center. Fans can follow along with the action on the Big Ten Network or listen on ESPN LA 710.