USC basketball: Trojans beat California, 66-63

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Two late three-point field goals by Mike Gerrity helped give USC a 66-63 victory over California at the Galen Center on Thursday.

California’s Jerome Randle put on one heck of a show, almost single-handedly keeping his team in it with 29 points on nine-of-22 shooting shooting from the field, including six of 12 from three-point range.

Dwight Lewis, who became USC’s all-time leader in games played (125) Thursday, led USC with 13 points.

The Trojans used a 25-0 run that spanned the first and second halves to go up 42-30 with 16:25 left in the game, but Randle scored nine straight near the end of the game to give his team a 53-52 lead with 4:37 left.

Two Gerrity three-pointers helped put USC up with less than five minutes to play, and forward Nikola Vucevic made four free throws in the final 10 seconds to seal the win.

USC (13-9 overall, 5-5 in Pacific 10 Conference play) snapped a two-game losing streak with the win.

California (14-8, 6-4) had won five of its last seven games.

And Stan Holt, the previously fired and then-rehired USC student manager, was mostly quiet on the bench, although he did seem to have some extra pep in his step tonight at fetching towels and lining up chairs during timeouts.

-- Baxter Holmes