Southern Cal knocks off Tennessee Tech, 70-58

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California was itching to return to the court after a surprising home loss in its season opener.

Aside from a few shaky moments, the Trojans were able to channel that itch into a winning effort.

Katin Reinhardt scored 19 points, 14 in the second half, and USC beat Tennessee Tech 70-58 Monday night for its first win of the season.

The Trojans (1-1) never trailed in the contest, a bounce back from a disheartening loss to Portland State in its season opener.

"We were really anxious to get back out there," said Reinhardt, a sophomore transfer from UNLV. "Losing sparked a different type of energy in our team. The night of the loss we were just down, but I think everybody did a good job of letting it go. We couldn't wait to play."

Jordan McLaughlin scored 15 points and Julian Jacobs added nine points and six rebounds for the Trojans, who shot 44.7 percent (21-47) from the field to overcome 17 turnovers.

"Normally you can't win when you turn it over 17 times," USC coach Andy Enfield said, "but we trimmed them down in the second half and I thought our guys played with confidence down the stretch. It was nice. We needed a win here."

Senior forward Dwan Caldwell led Tennessee Tech with 19 points and center Charles Jackson had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The Golden Eagles (1-1) overcame multiple double-digit deficits and trailed just 56-52 with 5:24 to play, but Reinhardt and Jacobs combined for 10 points in an 11-2 spurt in the final minutes to help USC pull away.

"We became stagnant on offense when they were coming back," Enfield said. "There was too much dribbling. The kids were trying but they have to understand when you're not flowing it creates turnovers."

After trailing the entire first half of their opener, the Trojans got off to a fast start and led by double digits less than four minutes in.

Three-pointers by McLaughlin and Reinhardt highlighted an 11-0 run that put USC up 13-2 at the 16:45 mark of the first half, but the Golden Eagles slowly chipped away at the deficit and cut USC's lead to 29-24 by halftime.

Tennessee Tech made it a one possession game with three quick points to open the second half to make it 29-27, but USC responded with a 7-0 run - with four different scorers - to stretch the lead back out.

The Golden Eagles once again clawed back and cut USC's lead to four down the stretch, but the Trojans engineered that final 11-2 run to put the game away.

Jacobs got the run started with a two-handed slam with 5:09 to go, and Reinhardt poured in seven points during the spurt to slam the door on Tennessee Tech.

"Any time you open a college season with a loss it's tough," Reinhardt said. "We should've won that game. We knew what we had to do and for us, especially going (on the road next), it was big to get this."

TIP-INS

USC started two freshmen and three sophomores. The Trojans don't have any seniors on their roster.USC's 17 turnovers were actually an improvement from their opener, when they committed 23.

Tennessee Tech outscored USC in the paint 36-28 and out-rebounded the Trojans 42-33... Jackson was the only player with double-digit rebounds in the game.

WHAT'S NEXT

USC faces Akron on Thursday in the first round of the Charleston Classic tournament in Charleston, S.C.

Tennessee Tech returns home and will host Chattanooga on Saturday.