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It was going to be an uphill battle for Kevin O'Neill and the Men of Troy in their first road game of the year and against the 2nd ranked team in the nation, the Texas Longhorns.
Ultimately, the Longhorns proved to be too daunting a task for the Trojans, who could not muster enough offense to stay with Texas for the long run, losing by a final score of 69-50.
Damion James had another strong performance for the Longhorns, leading all scorers with 19 points and chipping in with 9 boards in the win.
Trojans forward-center, Nicola Vucevic, continued on his strong start to the 2009-10 season with another double-double, hitting 8-of-13 from the field for 18 points and corralling 14 rebounds.
Thursday night's game marks Vucevic's third double-double in five games on the season.
Southern California was up at one point, by a margin of 23-19 in the first half, only to allow Texas to end the half on a 14-4 run.
In the second half, the Longhorns proved why they are ranked so highly, outscoring the Trojans 36-26 and putting them away for good.
A poor shooting night and turnovers would ultimately doom Southern California's chances against Texas.
Dwight Lewis and Marcus Johnson fared the worst against the Longhorns, combining to hit only 9-of-34 of their shots for the evening.
The Trojans, as a whole, shot a little over 30 percent from the field, hit only 1 of 10 of their three point attempts and combined to turn the ball over 17 times.
Texas players, on the other hand, were active all over the court Thursday night.
Senior Longhorns center, Dexter Pittman, who had 13 points and 5 rebounds, made his presence most felt on the defensive end, blocking seven Trojans' shots.
While they gave it a great effort, in the end Texas proved to be too tall a task for USC this early in the season.
Next up for the Trojans is a Saturday night, December 5th, contest against freshman phenom, Derrick Favors, and the George Tech Yellow Jackets.
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