The USC basketball team held Chasson Randle quiet for 40 minutes, but it was the Chasson Randle Show in the five-minute overtime period.
Randle scored seven of his team-high 17 points in the extra frame to lead the Stanford Cardinal to a 79-71 victory Sunday afternoon at the Galen Center.
"You can't hold him down the entire game," USC head coach Andy Enfield said of Randle. "I thought our players did a very good job on him, but he's an all-league player and he played like it in overtime."
The Trojans (10-10, 1-6) rallied from a seven-point deficit with less than four minutes remaining, scoring the final five points of regulation over the last 33.9 seconds. Pe'Shon Howard knocked down a 3-pointer and then full-court pressure from the Trojans forced a turnover when Anthony Brown dribbled the ball out of bounds.
On the subsequent possession, Byron Wesley got fouled and knocked down both free throws with 22 seconds remaining to tie the game. The Cardinal (13-6, 4-3) had two final attempts as Dwight Powell missed a fading jumper on the right-side of the lane and John Gage grabbed the offensive board, but lost the ball going up. Omar Oraby's last second heave from half court fell way short sending the game into overtime where Stanford dominated.
"It was a very tough game. We played so hard all game. We tried to win this game so bad," USC forward Strahinja Gavrilovic said. "We came back from being down seven points. In overtime, we made the mistakes."
The Trojans trailed by as many as eight points in the first half after missing 10 of their first 12 shots. USC used a 10-3 run relying on a full-court trapping defense to take a 21-19 lead. Stanford took a 32-28 lead into halftime, but the Trojans started the second half on an 8-0 run.
Wesley scored a game-high 18 points while Howard finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and a career-high 7 steals. Gavrilovic had a career-high 12 points. J.T. Terrell also set a career-high with 8 rebounds and chipped in 13 points.
Stanford had five players score double-figure points led by Randle's 17. Josh Huestis scored 16; Powell finished with 14; Brown had 11 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists; and John Gage scored 12 points off the bench, including a clutch 3-pointer in overtime.
USC basketball takes to the road this week, traveling to Oregon State (11-8, 3-4) on Thursday for a 6 p.m. PST matchup with the Beavers that will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks. Stanford next hosts the still undefeated No. 1 Arizona Wildcats (19-0, 6-0).
