USC basketball: Trojans rout UC Riverside, 56-35

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Injury-plagued USC made its first trip to UC Riverside on Wednesday and played before a raucous capacity crowd of 2,753 in the cozy Student Recreation Center, a place where the Highlanders were 16-0 in the last three seasons against nonconference opponents.

You might think all that would give Riverside an edge.

It didn’t.

Little seemed to affect the Trojans, who rolled to a 56-35 win in their first game without 7-foot sophomore Dewayne Dedmon, who sat out after suffering a stress injury in his right foot.

Despite trailing 10-2 in the first half, USC (4-4) kept its cool and used a 22-7 run to take control. Then, USC added a 19-8 push that spanned both halves and took a 53-30 lead with 8 minutes 55 seconds left in the second half.

By that point, the rout was on -- and this was against a Riverside team (2-5) that was coming off a win against Washington State in which the Highlanders trailed by 14 points and came back to win.

But there would be no comeback against the Trojans, who shot 52% (24 for 46) from the floor and had a balanced showing on offense with seven players scoring, led by Greg Allen’s 11 points.

Riverside was led in scoring by Phil Martin, who had 13 points.

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-- Baxter Holmes