LOS ANGELES -- The non-conference slate came to a close for the Thunderbird men's basketball team on Friday night, as they traveled into Pac-12 territory and fell to the USC Trojans 91-49.  

"They were dialed in and focused and they took it to us, we didn't have much of an answer," SUU head coach Todd Simon said. "We had way too many unforced errors with 24 turnovers and 14 offensive rebounds allowed. You're just not going to win those type of games."

SUU and USC went back-and-forth for the first several minutes, and the Trojans took a three-point lead into the first media timeout 11-8. Unfortunately shortly after that for Southern Utah, they went cold.

The T-Birds were stuck at 12 points for roughly six minutes, and the scoreless streak was finally broken by a Brandon Better 5-0 run to cut the Trojan lead to 13 heading into the final media timeout of the first half.  

Despite building some momentum, hitting three of their last four shots of the break, the T-Birds trailed the Trojans 39-25 at the break. Better led the team with 12 at the half, and only four Thunderbirds scored in the opening 20 minutes.

The second half belonged to the Trojans, as they were able to pull away from the Thunderbirds over the 20 minute period to secure a 91-49 victory.

Andre Adams led the Thunderbirds in the contest with 13 points. He also led the team in rebounding with eight. However, he was forced to play with four fouls for a significant amount of time.

"A lot of his fouls come from mistakes on the perimeter or offensive rebounds," Simon said. "I think if we can keep guys out of his lap and stop penetration it will keep him out of foul trouble and we've got to do a way better job on the glass so it's not such a fight inside."

SUU shot just 34 percent from the field in the contest, and missed 10 from the free throw line.

The T-Birds will next return home for a pair of contests against Montana State (December 29) and defending Big Sky Champion Montana (December 31).

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