gostanford.com photo: The USC Trojan’s Nick Rakocevic (31) is surrounded by the Stanford Cardinals’ Jaiden Declaire (11) and Oscar Da Silva (13) on Saturday night at USC

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, January 18, 2020

For the first 20 minutes, it was all Stanford in its Pac-12 men’s basketball game against Southern California. The last 20 minutes belonged to the Trojans.

Elijah Weaver made a 3-pointer to force overtime, as the Trojans rallied from a 21-point deficit to pull out an 82-78 win over the visiting Cardinal Saturday in Los Angeles.

The victory pulled the Trojans into a tie with Stanford for first place in the conference. It was USC’s ninth win in their last 10 games; they’re 8-1 at home this season.

Weaver also scored eight of his 13 points in overtime. Oneyka Okongwu scored 22 points to lead USC (15-3 overall, 4-1 Pac-12), followed by Jonah Mathews with 19 points and 11 from Ethan Anderson.

Okongwu also grabbed nine rebounds, as the Trojans held a 38-31 edge on the glass.

Oscar da Silva led the Cardinal with 21 points, and Spencer Jones was next with 18, followed by Tyrell Terry with 16 in Stanford’s first conference loss of the season.

Stanford (15-3, 4-1) led 69-64 with 33 seconds remaining in the second half after the Cardinal’s Lukas Kisunas converted a layup. USC responded with a layup by Okongwu with 11 seconds to play. After Stanford’s Daejon Davis committed a turnover on the inbound pass, Weaver hit an off-balance 3-pointer while being fouled by Davis.

Weaver didn’t get the rare four-point play, missing the free throw that would have given USC the lead in regulation.

In the opening 20 minutes, Stanford dominated, using a 7-0 run to take a 45-25 halftime lead. The Cardinal was 6 of 10 from behind the arc in the first half.

USC used a 15-2 run early in the second half to pull within 48-40. The Cardinal responded with a 9-2 run to go back up at 57-42 midway through the second half.

The Trojans launched another run, 12-1 burst to pull within 60-56 with 6:25 to play. An Anderson layup pulled USC to within 62-60 at 4:47 and picked up the pace defensively, forcing 17 Cardinal turnovers.

Stanford lost despite shooting 49 percent from the field (USC shot 40 percent).

The Cardinal take an eight-day break before visiting Cal on Jan. 26.