This is becoming more than a coincidence, more than a footnote. The USC basketball team has a perilous penchant for falling into large deficits early. Sometimes the Trojans can rally back all the way, sometimes part of the way, sometimes not at all.
But regardless of outcome, it's an unideal identity for a team to take on at a critical juncture of the season.
On Thursday night, USC trailed by 10 at halftime at No. 23 Arizona and by as many as 20 in the second half. Yes, the Trojans again battled back, but they also again lost -- 85-80 to the Wildcats.
And it really only go truly close in the final minute.
USC (17-6, 6-4 Pac-12) was down 8 when Onyeka Okongwu made two free throws with 58 seconds left to cut the deficit to 80-74. Arizona's Nico Mannion made only one of two free throws on the other end, and Daniel Utomi drained a high-arching catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the right wing to make it an 81-77 game.
The Trojans sent Arizona's Dylan Smith to the line with 23.2 on the clock and he made one of two foul shots, but Jonah Mathews missed a designed 3 from the right wing for USC and that was effectively the end of the comeback.
Mathews would later hit a 3 with 5 seconds left to make it 83-80, but Mannion converted both ensuing free throws to seal the win for Arizona (16-6, 6-3).
And another loss in which the Trojans could only lament how they started the game.
"We had trouble stopping them. They had a very good offensive flow. They really physically and athletically hurt us in the first half on the boards, got some easy baskets. And we had some really dumb turnovers -- we had live ball turnovers that led to some transition baskets, so that hurt us," USC coach Andy Enfield said afterward. "It gave them a good opportunity to get out in front. It's not fun when you have to play from behind most of the game."
He was speaking from experience.
It started Jan. 18 when USC fell behind by 21 early in the first half against Stanford before rallying for an overtime win. Two days later, the Trojans didn't start out quite as slow but they fell down by 11 with 8 minutes left in the second half at Oregon before later losing in double overtime. Two games later, they fell into a quick 10-point hole at home against Utah and were down 9 well into the second half before rallying for the win. And then the next time out, against Colorado, they went down 12 in the first half and never recovered on the way to a 78-57 loss.
The defeat Thursday night makes it two losses in a row. USC had entered that Colorado game with a chance to claim sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 -- now it sits fourth, but only a game back of the leaders Colorado and Oregon.
Meaning the Trojans are still very much in this Pac-12 race, but they have to buck this trend of playing from behind seemingly at all times.
"Give our guys credit -- they battled, they played hard, they finally got some stops," Enfield said. "We held Arizona without a field goal the last 8.5 minutes of the game, but somehow they kept going to the foul line. I've just got to look at the video and see what were fouls and what weren't and how we can get better at that."
Enfield was clearly miffed that Arizona shot 40 free throws (making 28) while his team got 24 attempts from the line.
He is right -- Arizona didn't make a single field goal over the final 8-plus minutes, missing its final 6 shots. The Wildcats shot just 5 of 22 from 3-point range, but those free throws balanced things out as did a 12-6 advantage in the turnover margin.
There was one series early in the second half that kind of encapsulated USC's frustrations Thursday night.
Nick Rakocevic had a chance to cut it to 8 in the opening minutes of the period on a made basket, but he traveled, negating the score. Mannion then drained a 3 for Arizona, Rakocevic turned it over on the other end with a lazy pass, and Josh Green threw down a fastbreak dunk to suddenly make it a 56-41 game.
That's kind of the way it went for most of the night.
USC finally gained some traction over the final 9-plus minutes. It was a 15-point game still at that point when Rakocevic found his rhythm. At one point, he had all 10 of USC's points during one stretch and 12 of 13 as the Trojans started to climb back in the game.
Utomi did his part too with some big buckets down the stretch -- including that final 3-pointer to make it a 4-point game late. Utomi, the grad transfer from Akron, finished with a season-high 22 points. His previous best was 17 vs. Cal, and he had combined for just 21 points total over the previous four games. A streaky shooter all season, he had it going in this one while hitting 7 of 10 shots overall, 4 of 7 from 3-point range and all 4 of his free throws.
"Daniel played a very good basketball game. He was confident, he posted up, he shot the 3. He shot a high percentage. That's what we need -- we need him to step up and shoot 3s for us," Enfield said.
Okongwu, the star freshman, led the Trojans overall with 23 points and 8 rebounds, and Rakocevic finished with 18 points and 7 boards while Mathews had another off shooting night (2 of 10 overall for 6 points).
Rakocevic and Mathews were on the bench to start the game due to a violation of team rules. Enfield wouldn't specify as to the nature of the violation.
"Violation of team rules, so we didn't start them. Just a violation," he said. "If they break the same rules, they'll keep coming off the bench."
He was then asked if he thought that might have contributed to the Trojans' slow start. He didn't think so.
"We've been off to bad starts with those two in the lineups many times," he said.
Indeed, and fixing that is priority No. 1 for USC if it wants to stay in this Pac-12 hunt.
