USC Men’s Basketball Earns 80-74 Exhibition Win at UC San Diego

Saturday, October 17

La Jolla, Calif.

7:00 p.m. PT

USC

0-0,0-0Big Ten

UC San Diego (Exhibition)

0-0,0-0Big West

Team	1	2	F
Southern California	40	40	80
UC San Diego	38	36	74

Photo by: John McGillen

USC Men’s Basketball Earns 80-74 Exhibition Win at UC San Diego

October 17, 2026 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The Trojans used a 14-2 second-half run and several key plays in crunch time to fend off the Tritons.

LA JOLLA, Calif. — It took a new defensive scheme, excellent production from Rodney Rice and Alijah Arenas, plus several key plays late to help the USC men's basketball team pick up an 80-74 exhibition win in the RIMAC Arena on Sunday, Oct. 17.

Playing in front of a near-sold-out UCSD crowd, the Trojans weathered several major scoring runs spurred by UCSD fifth-year Treysen Eaglestaff, an early barrage of threes and a defense adept at forcing turnovers to come away with their first exhibition win of the year.

In a back-and-forth second half that featured seven ties and nine lead changes, three USC players stepped up to help the Trojans win. Senior guard Rodney Rice scored nine of USC's final 11 points — including a perfect 9-for-9 from the free-throw line. After spending most of the game in foul trouble, forward Jacob Cofie grabbed nine of his 10 rebounds in the second half, including two critical rebounds that led to USC points.

Once again, Rice led the Trojans with 26 points on 7-for-14 shooting, including a team-high three threes, five assists and three steals — the latter of which would have tied his career-best, had the game counted. Fellow guard Alijah Arenas was USC's second-leading scorer again with 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting and a would-be career-best eight rebounds.

Jacob Cofie led the team with 10 rebounds to go with eight points, two assists and a steal despite playing just six minutes in the first half due to foul trouble.

UC San Diego's three-point shooting was on display early, as the Tritons took an 11-6 lead with sharpshooter Treyson Eaglestaff scoring eight of those points. The Tritons made as many three-pointers (six) as two-pointers (six) in the first half en route to connecting on 46.2% of their attempts from beyond the arc.

Yet for the first time on many occasions in the game, senior guard Rodney Rice spurred the team forward. In one stretch early in the first half in particular, he scored or assisted on nine of 12 USC points that helped the team take an 18-12 lead with 11:22 to go. But whenever USC took a two-possession lead, the Tritons knocked down a three on the other end to stay in the game. The Trojans were up 33-27 with four minutes to go when UCSD tore off a 9-0 run to go up 36-33 with 1:45 left.

Arenas scored four of the team's final seven points of the half, giving the Men of Troy a 40-38 lead.

To start the second half, Arenas and Isaac Bruns combined for the team's first six points, which put them up 46-40 in the first 68 seconds. Both teams traded runs in the second half.

Defensively, the Trojans went to a four-guard lineup with Rice, Arenas, Jalen Cox, KJ Lewis and Cofie and changed their game plan, which immediately showed results. USC held UC San Diego without a made three-pointer until 14 minutes left to go in the second half. During that time, USC went on a 14-2 run.

Although UCSD pulled within one point of USC with 90 seconds to go, Trojan guard Aaron Hunkin-Claytor checked into the game and was tasked with guarding Eaglestaff. Hunkin-Claytor stood his ground, forcing Eaglestaff to take a difficult, fadeaway three on the far right side that went offline.

UC San Diego's Eaglestaff led all players with 29 points, while Rhamil Barno and Leo Bath also finished in double figures.

USC finishes the exhibition slate with a road trip to San Diego State next Friday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. The game will not be televised or livestreamed. All pertinent information can be found on the men's basketball team's schedule page on usctrojans.com.

NOTES

The Trojans used a new starting lineup in the exhibition slate with Rodney Rice, Isaac Bruns, Alijah Arenas, Jacob Cofie and Darius Ratliff.
Tonight was the second consecutive game Rodney Rice and Alijah Arenas were the team's top two leading scorers, respectively. Rice has scored at least 20 points in both exhibitions.
Senior guard KJ Lewis made his Trojan debut with seven points, three rebounds, two blocks and an assist in 22 minutes of action.
The win was Head Coach Eric Musselman's fifth exhibition victory in his three seasons at USC.
This was USC's first-ever meeting against UC San Diego.