USC was without starting point guard and leading scorer Desmond Claude on Tuesday night at Northwestern, but that actually seemed to have little to do with why the Trojans lost and followed a momentous top-10 win with bad Big Ten road loss.

With Claude sitting after taking a hard fall in USC's win over then-No. 7 Michigan State on Saturday (though he played through the injury in that win), the Trojans got everything they could have asked for with Clark Slajchert making his first start of the season and delivering 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting (4-of-4 on 3-pointers).

But it's hard to overcome giving up a 43-27 rebounding disparity or the 24 second-chance Northwestern points that came from that as the Wildcats closed out a 77-75 win in Evanston, Illinois.

The Trojans relinquished any momentum from their big win over Michigan State while falling to 13-9 overall and 5-6 in the Big Ten, while Northwestern improved to 13-10, 4-8.

Simply put, this was one USC needed to win if it hoped to make its case for NCAA tournament consideration this month.

Slajchert, who has only played in 14 of USC's 22 games this season while often being left out of the rotation entirely, was incredible in his spot start Tuesday and may force his way into a bigger role off the bench moving forward.

The Trojans were down 4 late with Slajchert hit a 3-pointer while drawing a foul and completed the four-point play to tie the score at 75-75 with 29 seconds left.

But Northwestern got a score on the other end from Nick Martinelli to pull back ahead with 2 seconds left.

Time expired without USC getting another shot off.

Wesley Yates II added 15 points for USC and Chibuzo Agbo had 14, but the rest of the supporting cast really fell short. Rashaun Agee and Saint Thomas shot a combined 4-of-14 for 11 points and Josh Cohen played just 3 minutes coming off one of his better games of the season.

Matt Knowling returned to a full workload after playing just a minute in his return last game, chipping in 7 points and 5 rebounds off the bench in 32 minutes.

The Trojans play at No. 7-ranked Purdue on Friday with another chance against a top-10 opponent and time running thin to mount a real push into the postseason conversation.