In some ways, USC's Big Ten tournament opener Wednesday was a lot like this basketball season as a whole -- the Trojans flashed their compelling potential before seeming to run out of steam on the way to what looked like a deflating finish.

But that all changed at the very end.

After letting a 15-point lead entirely slip away as Rutgers led by 4 points inside the final 30 seconds, the Trojans came through with the defensive stops they needed, two Wesley Yates free throws and a clutch driving layup from Desmond Claude to tie the game and force overtime.

It would take two extra periods, but No. 14-seeded USC eventually found a final surge while pulling away from No. 11 Rutgers for a 97-89 double-overtime win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

While the Trojans (16-16) flipped the script Wednesday, they'll need a lot more to stem the tide of the season itself as they now take on No. 6 Purdue (21-10) at 6 p.m. PT Thursday (on Big Ten Network), needing an upset win just to reach the tournament quarterfinals.

"Sometimes it's like a boxing match and somebody has to persevere," coach Eric Musselman said.

The Trojans were that team in large part due to the poised play of Claude, who finished with 28 points on 8-of-13 shooting (12 of 15 on free throws) along with 8 assists, while Yates scored 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting (hitting all 4 3-pointers and all 6 free throws), Rashaun Agee added 23 points and 11 rebounds and Chibuzo Agbo had 13 points and 10 boards.

The gritty win comes after USC lost eight of its final 10 regular-season games -- with the lone wins over two teams who missed the cut for the Big Ten tournament in Penn State and Washington.

"Watching a lot of film as a team, we had to figure out what we could do better and why we was losing, and one thing we came down to was everybody could have played harder, get 50-50 balls, and I feel like we did a pretty good job today," Claude said. "And we wanted this game. It's a tournament, we came in 0-0, we wanted to keep winning, so we were playing hard and the game went our way."

USC had gone up 33-18 late in the first half, took a 41-30 lead into halftime and led by as many as 13 points early in the second half before Rutgers (15-17) used an aggressive press defensively to force a slew of turnovers and climb back into the game.

USC committed 21 turnovers overall, including 11 in the second half.

"It's not often that you have 21 turnovers and win a basketball game. Not only did we have 21 turnovers and win a basketball game, they took 17 more field goals attempted than us and we led for 35 minutes. So you look at the stat sheet and some wacky things, but I thought we were really efficient on offense when we didn't turn the ball over," Musselman said.

Rutgers, led by 27 points from Dylan Harper, led for most of the final 4 minutes before the Trojans rallied to force overtime.

After Yates got to the line on a drive to the basket and made two free throws with 24 seconds left to cut the deficit to 73-71, USC quickly fouled Jeremiah Williams, who missed both free throws for the Scarlett Knights. Claude then worked his way through the paint for a driving layup high off the glass to tie the game with 9 seconds left, and Harper missed a final jumper on the other end.

Rutgers had the last possession of the first overtime with the game tied at 81-81, but USC delivered strong defense to keep Harper from getting the look he wanted, so he dished to Williams for an open 3-point attempt that missed, leading to a second overtime.

This time, USC asserted itself immediately as Claude scored on a layup, Harper missed for Rutgers and Agee drained a 3-pointer for the Trojans for a 5-point lead. After Lathan Sommerville scored for the Scarlett Knights, Yates hit a 3 to make it 89-83 and the Trojans closed it out comfortably from there.

"That's a game on why tournament play is so fun and exciting," Musselman said. "... Every game's a game of three runs. We had one in the first half, they had one in the second half and then we were able to finish the game on a run. I thought our two defensive stops were crucial, down 4 with a minute to go, to give ourselves a chance to play into the first overtime."

Claude reiterated that point.

"Defense. We had to get stops and the biggest two stops at the end of the game, those were big. We were just harping on rebounding, stopping Harper, because we knew he was going to try to get a bucket, and then rebounding," he said.

Yates played a whopping 50 minutes in the win, Agee played 48, Claude 46, Saint Thomas 42 and Chibuzo Agbo 41, and now the Trojans have to turn around a day later and play Purdue, which has had a bye to this point of the tournament.

"Even though our guys played a lot of minutes, they do that all the time. And I've said it before, [New York Knicks coach] Tom Thibodeau is one of my best friends, and we're going to play our guys that we think can help us win on that given night as many minutes as it takes," Musselman said. "So I do think our guys are used that many minutes. ... And I didn't think that we had any dip in our energy --- I actually thought it kind of rose at one point in the second overtime."

Said Claude: "We practice and train for these moments. There's a lot of stuff that we've done to get here. ... Get some sleep, that's the biggest one."