Alijah Arenas' 27-point night leads USC past Indiana in close conference win

LOS ANGELES — The USC Trojans played yet another tightrope game against a Big Ten opponent, but this time managed to end on a positive note. 

Head coach Eric Musselman and his squad welcomed the 15-7 Indiana Hoosiers into the Galen Center Tuesday night and managed to escape with an 81-75 victory. 

Shots were falling left and right for the Trojans' offense to begin the con, as they managed to make their first seven shot attempts and shut down the Hoosiers attempt to get anything going with stellar defense in the paint within the first 10 minutes of regulation. 

Freshman Alijah Arenas rejoined the team on January 21 against the Northwestern Wildcats and, since then, has been on a steady upclimb to knock off the rust of sitting out for the last couple of months. 

He started off the first half as Southern California's leader in points (10) on some lopsided shooting attempts (3-13). 

Nonetheless, his performance against the Hoosiers would be a step in the right direction as he notched a career high of 29 points on 9-23 shooting from the floor and five rebounds. 

Following the win, coach Musselman said he doesn't regret starting Arenas in his first game back when USC played Northwestern some weeks ago and forgoed settling him in traditionally, knowing he would only need just a handful of games to get his groove back.  

Musselman called Arenas' performance "pretty damn impressive," considering that the 18-year-old has just a handful of games at the collegiate level under his belt. 

Arenas credited his team for his upbringing at the college level, and also gave his flowers to Kam Woods, whom Arenas credits for his shooting performance as of late. 

"Without my team, I kind of start losing myself, which is why I am grateful to have them," Arenas said. 

Woods also had a great night on the floor, shooting 6-12 from the floor and notching 18 points, along with six rebounds to his credit. 

Woods and Arenas had to pick up the majority of the offensive baggage as leading scorer Chad Baker-Mazara went down with an ankle injury in the second half and had to be helped off the court. 

He would later reappear with crutches and an ice pack on his knee as he sat down on the sidelines. 

Musselman gave no concrete update on the condition of Chad Baker-Mazara's injury, but assumes he has a sprained MCL, and won't know until Baker-Mazara gets an MRI soon. 

Despite the loss of Baker-Mazara, the Trojans were able to keep the Hoosiers' field goal percentage a tick above 40 percent, and a clutch block by Ryan Cornish during Indiana's final shot attempt was the final nail in the coffin, as USC came away with their sixth conference win. 

The Trojans have some time before their next contest, as they head out to play the Penn State Cougars on Super Bowl Sunday.