USC's Isaiah Mobley is guarded by an Arizona defender during the Trojans' March 2 game against the Wildcats. (Photo by Michael Chow)

What was once a sold-out Galen Center filled with Trojan faithful became taken over by “U-of-A” chants by the time the final buzzer sounded.

No. 2 Arizona throttled No. 16 USC 91-71 on Tuesday night, handing the Trojans their largest loss of the season.

Following an embarrassing loss to Colorado on Saturday, the Wildcats looked determined to return to form and beat the Trojans with style points — and Arizona almost won the game in the first half alone.

“Up until this point, Oregon was the only team that really beat us,” head coach Andy Enfield said. “And Arizona beat us. They beat us tonight.”

Everything that went wrong for the Trojans in the first matchup between these two teams went even worse this time around. USC shot 23.3% from three and allowed a 40% 3-point percentage from Arizona in the February game, but somehow took a step backward on Tuesday — connecting on only 18.8% of its 3-pointers and allowing the Wildcats to make 45.3% of their 3-point shots.

“Our lack of offensive efficiency hurt our defense and allowed [Arizona] to get out and get easy baskets,” Enfield said.

After a tight start with Arizona leading 7-6, USC fell apart defensively and gave up a 14-2 run that proved insurmountable. USC couldn’t bring the deficit to single digits from that point forward.

USC was down 51-27 at the break and showed no sign of recovery in the second half. Arizona kept the offensive onslaught coming for the full 40 minutes and buried the Trojans 91-71.

When asked what positives he can take from this blowout loss, Enfield couldn’t think of many that came on the basketball court.

“The fans were great,” Enfield said. “The DJ was outstanding.”

One of the reasons USC kept it close with the Wildcats in their first matchup of the season was that the Trojans held sophomore guard Bennedict Mathurin mostly in check. Mathurin had eight points in the February game, but USC had no success locking Mathurin down in Tuesday’s contest. Mathurin had eight points in the first 10 minutes of the game alone and finished with 19 points on the night.

USC’s own go-to scorer as of late, senior guard Drew Peterson, struggled for the first time since early February. After averaging 20.2 points in the last five games, Peterson scored only 10 against Arizona on 2-of-11 shooting. Peterson went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc as well.

“Saw a few go in and out, I think about three or four of my threes,” Peterson said. “I just got to keep the confidence knowing all my teammates trust me and get back at it Saturday [against UCLA]. I’m not going to lose any confidence from it.”

Peterson was not the only player to have an off night for the Trojans. The trio of Peterson, junior forward Isaiah Mobley and junior guard Boogie Ellis started the game 3-of-23 from the field and finished the game 8-of-34.

Despite the uncharacteristic performance from USC’s three leading scorers, Mobley is not worried at all about his team’s rough night.

“We’ve only lost five games, so just learn from it,” Mobley said. “I’d rather lose now than in either of [the Pac-12 or NCAA] tournaments.”

USC falls to 25-5 and 14-5 in conference play with the blowout loss. With the loss, the Trojans officially missed their opportunity to take the Pac-12 regular season title, and the Wildcats clinched the title instead. USC will finish its season with a road matchup at UCLA on Saturday that will determine the two-seed in the Pac-12 Tournament.

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