The last shot USC senior Bennie Boatwright took prior to Saturday, he was elevating for a decisive mid-range jumper in the final seconds at Stanford earlier in the week.

That potential game-winner was no good Wednesday night, and whether or not Boatwright dwelled on that miss the last few days, he wasted no time shaking the memory as he returned to the court.

In fact, it seemed as if he was determined not to miss at all Saturday evening.

Boatwright has been one of the few consistent positives in a disappointing season for the Trojans and he was simply incredible in this one, scoring 36 points and setting a USC single-game record with 10 made 3-pointers in an 89-66 win at Cal.

Boatwright would have likely eclipsed his career-high of 37 points (set against Oregon State earlier this season) had USC coach Andy Enfield not shown the Golden Bears some mercy by taking out the senior sharpshooter with 4:04 remaining.

All Boatwright could do was smile -- as he did most of the night -- because he was simply too good Saturday for those final minutes to matter.

He made 10 of 13 3-pointers and added 5 rebounds while the Trojans (14-12, 7-6 Pac-12) shot 19 of 31 from 3-point range overall (61.3 percent) in snapping a three-game losing skid.

"It's funny how that works sometimes in a game where one guy gets going or two guys make shots and everyone seems to make shots," Enfield said afterward. "Sometimes when a couple guys miss everybody misses, and it just snowballed in our favor tonight."

Cal, meanwhile, drops to 5-20 overall and 0-13 in the conference. So the collective celebration for USC should be kept in perspective as it completes the season sweep of the Golden Bears.

But on an individual level, Boatwright earned his spotlight Saturday.

The 6-foot-10 forward doubled his previous season-high for made 3s while notching his third career 30-point game. As for the Trojans record he set, the previous high for 3s in a game by an individual was 9 by Anthony Pendleton (1987) and Katin Reinhardt (2015).

And again, Boatwright set the tone immediately.

After Jonah Mathews opened the game with a 3 for USC, Boatwright followed suit, draining his first long-distance attempt from several feet behind the top or the arc. He added another 3 from the left corner a couple possessions later while helping stake the Trojans to a quick 11-0 lead. He made his first 5 3s overall.

With that strong start, USC played with a confident ease the rest of the way, taking a 41-26 lead into halftime and not letting it get any closer the rest of the way.

Boatwright capped his night with a long 3 from the right wing to set the record before checking out and watching the last four minutes from the sideline, his work done.

Freshman Kevin Porter Jr. was the Trojans' second-leading scorer with 14 points on an efficient 3-of-5 shooting (3 of 4 on 3s), and junior big man Nick Rakocevic added 12 points and 11 rebounds while coming off the bench for the second straight game (and only the third time all season).

Sophomore Victor Uyaelunmo started in his place and scored 2 points with 4 rebounds in 19 minutes.

The Trojans dished out 24 assists Saturday (led by 7 from point guard Derryck Thornton) and earned a 42-34 rebounding edge over Cal.

"It's a team effort. Our point guard play was outstanding," Enfield said. "Our guard play with Jonah Mathews, Shaqquan Aaron had 5 assists in the first half, Derryck Thornton had 7 assists, Elijah Weaver and Kevin Porter, they were all finding people tonight. So it's fun to watch our team play when they share the ball like that. Bennie was the recipient of good guard play tonight, and he knocked it down and did what he was supposed to do."

The win keeps USC in range of a top-four finish in the Pac-12 standings, which would earn a first-round bye in the conference tournament. The Trojans' only hope of sneaking into the NCAA Tournament is to win the Pac-12 tourney, so that top-4 seed becomes the first goal for the rest of the schedule.

But as this team has proven, consistency is not is strong suit. USC had posted three impressive wins over UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State before dropping the next three to Utah at home (77-70), Colorado at home (69-65) and that tough one at Stanford (79-76) -- after having the chance to take the lead in the final seconds before the Cardinal padded the lead at the free throw line.

"Well, we lost two games at the buzzer the last two games. We lost a home game and a road game. We had a chance to win it at the end and we missed two wide-open shots. And tonight we made our shots," Enfield said. "We're very proud of how they came out. We've been in a hotel now for two and a half days since our last game. It was a 5-day road trip, it's long and they get sluggish, so we were excited they came out with great energy and intensity and got off to a great start."