USC Men’s Basketball Loses 74-68 to Northwestern

Wednesday, January 21

Los Angeles, Calif.

8 p.m.

USC

14-5,3-5Big Ten

Northwestern

9-10,1-7Big Ten

Northwestern

Southern California

USC Men’s Basketball Loses 74-68 to Northwestern

January 21, 2026 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Press Conference

Jordan Marsh scored all 19 of his points off the bench

LOS ANGELES — USC Men's Basketball (14-5, 3-5 Big Ten) fell 74-68 to the Northwestern Wildcats (9-10, 1-7 Big Ten) in the Galen Center on Wednesday, Jan. 21.

The Trojans trailed for the entire second half but cut Northwestern's lead to one point with just under five minutes to play. Despite strong late efforts from Ezra Ausar and Jordan Marsh, the Trojans went 1-for-5 from the field in the final two minutes while Northwestern went 5-for-6 from the free throw line to ice the game.

USC connected on 38.5% of its field goals and went 2-for-13 (15.4%) from three. The Trojans won the rebounding battle 39-33 and committed the same number of turnovers as Northwestern with six, but poor free-throw shooting doomed the Trojans for the second consecutive game. USC went 26-for-43 (60.5%) from the charity stripe while Northwestern went 15-for-18 (83.3%).

Marsh led the Trojans with 19 points — all of which came in the second half — while Ausar had 17 points. Chad Baker-Mazara had 14 points, while freshman Alijah Arenas finished with eight points in his debut as a Trojan.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Chad Baker-Mazara set the tone early for USC by scoring eight of the Trojans' first 14 points. Four of those points belonged to Alijah Arenas, who made his long-awaited collegiate basketball debut. The freshman made his first basket as a Trojan when Kam Woods found him in the corner for a midrange jumper, but his second basket truly wowed the fans. Baker-Mazara corralled a defensive rebound at the free throw line and heaved a pass downcourt to Arenas, who barely managed to catch the pass in front of the Northwestern bench. With one quick crossover, he sent his defender crashing to the ground before he drove to the basket, pirouetted between two defenders, and made an acrobatic layup that got the crowd to its feet.

From there, USC took its largest lead of the game off a dunk from Ausar to make it 20-13 with 10:15 to play, but the Wildcats answered by going on a 6-0 run. The Trojans would make just two field goals in the final 10 minutes of the first half while Northwestern took a 31-28 lead on its final possession of the half.

Both teams traded baskets out of the halftime break, but Northwestern got a boost from Nick Martinelli — the Big Ten's leading scorer — who had seven points for the Wildcats in the first seven minutes of the half. After going scoreless in the first half, Marsh provided an offensive spark for the Trojans by knifing his way into the lane, drawing contact and making free throws. Northwestern couldn't manage to pull away.

With 5 minutes and 29 seconds to go in the game, Marsh drew a foul and sank both free throws, then made a fast-break layup off a Northwestern turnover on the next possession to make the score 60-59. The Wildcats went on a 5-0 run that appeared to be the knockout punch, yet Ausar and Marsh answered with four-straight points with under three minutes to go.

Trailing 65-63 with 2:47 to go, USC turned up its defensive pressure. The Trojans nearly forced a turnover with a long deflection that went out of bounds in front of the Trojans' bench, giving the Wildcats just 1.6 seconds to avoid a shot clock violation. But Martinelli corralled a cross-court pass and beat the shot clock buzzer with a fadeaway jumper on the baseline to make it a four-point game once more. Northwestern would ice the game by going 5-for-6 at the free throw line to hand USC a 74-68 loss.

NOTABLES

Jordan Marsh had 19 points off the bench, all of which came in the second half. Tonight marks his third outing with a double-digit performance in the second 20 minutes of action (last vs. Washington on Dec. 6). Marsh also went 9-for-9 from the free throw line, the sixth time this season he's been perfect at the stripe.
Alijah Arenas made his first collegiate basket — a baseline jumper — at 16:23 in the first half. In his Trojan debut, Arenas recorded eight points, two rebounds and two assists.
On his first triple of the night, Chad Baker-Mazara surpassed 1,500 career points. He registered 14 points and two assists.
This is the second time this season Jacob Cofie has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in back-to-back games. He has also recorded at least one block in the last four games.
This is the third straight game with at least three Trojans contributing double-digit scoring.
Northwestern's six turnovers are a Trojan opponent-low of this season.
USC is now 6-5 all-time against Northwestern and Coach Musselman is now 0-2 against the Wildcats.
Tonight's starting lineup featured Kam Woods, Alijah Arenas, Chad Baker-Mazara, Jacob Cofie and Ezra Ausar. This lineup is 0-1 on the season.

QUOTABLES
Coach Eric Musselman on Jordan Marsh's spark off the bench…
"He was 9-9 from the foul line. I thought he did a great job getting into the teeth of the defense. His quickness, pace of play, and most importantly, tonight I thought he did a great job defensively."

Coach Eric Musselman on improving USC's defense…
"As a staff, we got to do a way better teaching guys how to defend without fouling. We're undisciplined. We go for shot fakes."

Coach Eric Musselman on the message in the locker room…
"There was definitely not enough hurt after the last game. The name of the game is to win. Only they know internally in that locker room how much that Purdue loss hurt, and how much tonight hurts."

Jordan Marsh on the team's mindset tonight and moving forward…
"Just being more connected and knocking down free throws and just playing desperate, that's really it."

Jordan Marsh on his process of getting his free throws right and translating that energy into his teammates…
"I kept working on free throws, after practice, before practice, during shoot around today. So that was my main goal, just to make all my free throws today. As a team, we played 26-43, that can't happen if we want to win."

Ezra Ausar on improving the team's work ethic…
"I have a 100% faith in all my teammates at any time in the game and during practice. I'm always encouraging my teammates to be better every day. No matter how you're feeling, mentally, spiritually, or physically. You have to do something that we're committed to doing every day, whether it's school or basketball. Our body is adjusted to it, and I think we need to get better at it, overall, as a player, as a team, as coaching, and figure out how we can build consistency."

Ezra Ausar on the team holding themselves accountable in practice…
"I think we're all here to learn, we're not pros. I have to be with these people every day so not being so combative when people are speaking, but just accepting it and learning how to learn from each other and learning from who you're dealing with every day as well. It's all around, it's bigger than basketball for sure. Character means a lot."

Ezra Ausar on what's missing for the team to close out the game down the stretch…
"I just think it's habits, how you finish practice is how you'll finish a game."

UP NEXT
USC heads to Wisconsin for a two-game road trip, starting Sunday, Jan. 25 at 1 p.m. PT. Fans can follow along with the action on Peacock or listen on ESPN LA 710.