This one will sting. This one will linger with the USC men's basketball team.

Despite trailing most of the game Monday night against rival UCLA, the Trojans had every opportunity to steal a victory in the final minutes -- a win that would have sure helped their hopes to get in the NCAA tournament conversation, a win that would have resonated well with the best crowd of the season at Galen Center.

After being down by as many as 12 points midway through the second half, USC had a chance to tie it up with 1:54 remaining when former Trojan Kobe Johnson -- now with the rival Bruins -- fouled out of the game to the delight of that loud and highly-engaged crowd and sent Wesley Yates III to the foul line with the hosts down 2 points.

Yates missed the front end before making the second free throw, leaving USC down a point, but the Trojans would get another chance moments later when Saint Thomas was fouled making a rebound on the other end and sent to the line for two shots. The steady veteran missed both, however, Sebastian Mack promptly drained a long 3-pointer from well behind the arc on the right wing for UCLA and the Bruins pulled away for an 82-76 win.

"We make two free throws and strategies change at that point. We put ourselves in a position to win and missed foul shots," Trojans coach Eric Musselman lamented, his frustration palpable. "But it's a 40-minute game and there's probably 30 other things I could point out. ... We played super hard, but close doesn't count."

It was hard not to dwell on the what-ifs after this one as the Trojans (12-8, 4-5 Big Ten) missed 5 of 7 free throw attempts in the final 5:13 of the game (and shot just 11 of 19 from the line overall).

"I missed the front end to tie the game. I work on free throws every single day, so it's pretty frustrating for me, honestly," Yates said. "I try to get at least 100 makes in in a day -- 10 in a row 10 times. I've just got to be more focused. I've just got to step up. I've just got to be mature enough to do it every game, every opportunity that I get."

Said teammates Rashaun Agee: "We're going to get in the gym tomorrow and we're going to do exactly what we always do -- we're going to work on our game and we're going to build confidence and the next game we're going to make them."

"Get in the gym tonight," Yates interjected softly.

Yes, this is one the Trojans will look back on and wish they had back, especially if they end up on the wrong end of the NCAA tournament bubble in March.

After winning three of the past four games, this would have really created some momentum for the squad, especially to do it before this kind of crowd (the announced attendance was 7,532) that hasn't been the norm this season in Galen, where the Trojans are now just 1-4 at home in conference play.

That reality gnawed at Musselman and the Trojans afterward as well ...

"Tonight's crowd was great. I think some of the other games we walked out there and the environment is what it is when there's not ..." Musselman said. "But Wisconsin crowd was really good, this crowd was good. Like I said, I'm searching. I never had a team stay in a hotel the night before a home game -- it's going to be discussed. Just because that's what we do on the road. I'd love to say that I have the answers -- I don't."

Said Yates: "I feel like every time we get a big crowd, we don't really have nothing to show for it. We never really get the win besides Iowa. When we play at home, we've got to be even more focused -- 10 times more because we expect the crowd to be there every game but we're not producing. Like honestly, who's going to want to come watch us if we're not producing?"

Disappointing as the outcome was, it overshadowed some real positives for the Trojans.

Agee, the team's surging sixth man, scored a season-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting while finding openings in the paint all night. And Yates continued his reliably consistent production with 19 points.

Thomas added 13 points and a team-high 8 rebounds and 6 assists, while point guard Desmond Claude scored 12 points with 6 assists.

Musselman challenged his senior leader after the game, though, as he finished below his recent standard of scoring output.

"Des, he's got to play better than he did tonight and than he did against Wisconsin. We rely on him. He's one of the most dynamic scorers in the Big Ten," Musselman said. "... No one's blaming any player, I would never do that, but we needed somebody else to kind of step up tonight."

Certainly, there was plenty to pin this loss on otherwise, though -- namely the aforementioned free throw shooting woes or allowing UCLA (15-6, 6-4) to shoot 68.2 percent (15 of 22) from the field in the first half while controlling the lead for most of the game.

Musselman also vented his frustration that the Trojans only got to the line 19 times when a key component to their game plan was drawing fouls against UCLA's aggressive defensive style.

"One of the most baffling is how do we only take 19 foul shots? Just look at the physicality," he said. "But at some point in the game you've got to change your [plan]. If you're not getting to the foul line based on dribble penetration, you're going to have to change on the fly. We thought the 3-point line was the next best thing."

(USC was 11 of 31 on 3-pointers.)

"Part of the game plan was drawing free throws attempted. When you play UCLA, that's what we felt ...," Musselman continued later. "When we played Coach Cronin's team at Nevada, part of the thing was drawing free throws. Because they're physical. I love his style of play -- they're grimy, dirty, get after you. But with full-court pressure and somebody playing 90 feet, you think there's going to be some early bonus stuff. We must have to do a better job."

Back to the positives, though, both Agee and Yates shared perspective on how their seasons have unfolded while becoming key cogs for this Trojans team after quiet starts.

Agee, the Bowling Green transfer, had scored in double figures just twice in the first 14 games. Moreover, he was barely playing some nights (10 minutes or less vs. the likes of Idaho State, UT Arlington, San Jose State, Grambling, New Mexico, etc.)

He's now scored in double figures in four of the last five games and is averaging 16.7 points over the last three games. He played a season-high 32 minutes Monday night off the bench.

"He's playing with a lot of energy and he [was] one of the best rebounders in the country last year -- he's added a lot of stuff to his offensive game. I thought he was phenomenal tonight," Musselman said. "[Aday] Mara was good too, but you pick up the stat sheet and 'Shaun held his own. You're talking about a 6-6 guy going against a 7-3 guy."

So what's changed for Agee recently?

"Confidence, believing, me and Muss believing in each other more, understanding each other, just getting a feel for each other," Agee said. "Having a new coach, things aren't just going to click right away. Having a new team, things aren't going to click right away. ... When we're in practice, he gets on me a lot and pushes me to become a better player, and now I feel like you get that one chance ... me and him just got that type of vibe where it's like kill or be killed."

Yates, meanwhile, is averaging 17.1 points over the last seven games while continuing to assert himself as a keystone for the future as just a redshirt freshman.

"I feel like, just the work that I put in, it's just showing," he said. "Even when I wasn't playing earlier in the season and me and Muss, we didn't click right away, it was like, it took for Terrance [Williams II] to get hurt. I don't really know how to explain it, honestly. If Terrance wouldn't have got hurt, I wouldn't be playing this much, but I feel like as I continued to prove every game moving forward and forward and forward, I feel like I was just showing different sparks of what I can do.

"I just met the opportunity -- I was prepared for it. I feel like as long as I keep working I'm going to keep playing better."

The same probably can be said for this team in general. Even with a disappointing outcome in a winnable game Monday night, these Trojans have clearly grown over the course of Musselman's first season and are a better team than they were a couple months ago -- or even a month ago.

Whether they can do enough to get in the NCAA tournament conversation over the next month or so remains to be seen, but this season was always going to be a challenge with an entirely new roster being molded together on the fly by a head coach in his first year here.

"I'd hope that anyone that came to tonight's game or anyone that watched would say, 'Wow, in Year 1, they're battling and competing,'" Musselman said. "At one point when there was 2.5 minutes to go, in my heart, I sincerely thought we were going to win. We didn't. We'll see where we are in five years, I don't know. Hopefully I'm still sitting here and we have a team that can play in Sweet 16s."

One step at a time. Monday night was a frustrating one for the Trojans, but this season continues to have every opportunity to be the opposite for a group that is figuring out how all the pieces fit together more and more, it seems, each week.

NOTES:

Musselman was asked if there is any update on a potential return for Williams, the starting forward who hasn't played since Dec. 4, or initial sixth-man Matt Knowling, who last played Dec. 22.

The coach didn't sound optimistic.

"No, no. Terrance is nothing foreseeable. It's frustrating, you know," he said. "One guy's your sixth man out of the gate and the other guy's your starter. So it's frustrating. ... At some point you look down there and teams just keep coming at you with seventh, eighth, ninth man."

...

Johnson, the former Trojans, got booed throughout the night when he touched the ball for UCLA. he finished with 7 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal before fouling out late.

Eric Dailey Jr. led the Bruins with 16 points, while Mack scored 14, Mara had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks and Dylan Andrews added 12 points and 6 assists. The Bruins have won four in a row.