As the drought dragged into its seventh minute, disaster knocked at USC’s door.
Shots simply refused to fall. Errant passes flew inexplicably out of bounds. Turnovers piled up at an alarming clip. Any rhythm the Trojans had found on their two-game Rocky Mountain trip apparently had been lost upon the team landing in Los Angeles. The first crowd at Galen Center in more than a month could only look on in confusion at a team that had looked like one of the nation’s best the last time it played in front of home fans.
Nothing was working Monday night until freshman Reese Dixon-Waters caught a pass just behind the 3-point arc, 13 minutes into one of USC’s worst starts in recent memory. The Trojans had lost nearly as many turnovers (eight) as they had scored points (10). They had missed 11 straight from the field over seven scoreless minutes, spotting Arizona State, one of the Pac-12 Conference’s worst teams, an early 12-point lead.
