Southern California rides an early-season wave of offensive production into what is technically a neutral-court game against Illinois State on Friday at Inglewood, Calif.
The game at the Los Angeles Clippers’ 2-year-old home is the first of two in the Hall of Fame Series Los Angeles, with Arizona vs. UCLA serving as the nightcap.
USC (2-0) makes the short trip west of campus for the program’s first meeting with Illinois State (1-1) in more than 40 years.
The schools last met in the 1985 NCAA Tournament, a matchup the Redbirds won 58-55.
While the Trojans managed just 55 total points in that contest four decades ago, the 2025-26 version heads into Friday’s affair having scored at least 55 points in their last three halves.
USC began its prolific run with a 57-point second half in a 94-64 opening-night rout of Cal Poly. The Trojans followed up last Sunday with halves of 55 and 59 points in a 114-83 rout of Manhattan.
The 114 points were the most USC has scored in a game since March 1998. Auburn transfer Chad Baker-Mazara fueled the Trojans on Sunday, scoring 26 points in what USC coach Eric Musselman called a breakout game.
“It meant something to Chad, and we’re going to need him and Rodney (Rice) to carry some of our offensive load late in games,” Musselman said.
Rice, a transfer from Maryland, scored 21 points against Cal Poly and 14 against Manhattan.
Illinois State bounced back from its season-opening loss to Ohio with a 76-65 victory over Cornell on Sunday.
The Redbirds held the Big Red to 35.0%from the floor, including 6 of 31 (19.4%) from 3-point range. Illinois State got 24 points off the bench from Ty’Reek Coleman in 26 minutes.
“I just went out there and played my role,” Coleman said, according to the campus newspaper The Vidette. “Right now, (that is) playing that extra spark off the bench.”
A big key for the Redbirds, both figuratively and literally, will be keeping All-Missouri Valley Conference post presence Chase Walker on the floor.
The 6-foot-9, 280-pound forward who averaged 15.2 points and 6.2 rebounds last season, has been limited to fewer than 20 minutes in each of Illinois State’s first two outings, because of foul trouble.
