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LOS ANGELES ? Kevin O'Neill believes some day his USC Trojans will look back and understand what games like this one meant.
Saturday, however, wasn't the day. It's still too early. For understanding and for this team.
The Trojans lost another tight finish, this time to Georgia, 63-59, as the education of a young group continued.
"That's just who we are right now," O'Neill said. "This group of guys is gonna have great days here. And they're gonna end up winning a lot of games here. Right now, they're struggling a little bit, and they're not able to close out close games.
"That's unfortunate. But with that comes a lot of valuable lessons that, when the days are good down the line, which they will be for this group, they'll end up appreciating them a whole lot more."
USC, having endured NCAA sanctions, player transfers and the early departure to the NBA of Nikola Vucevic, has no choice but to rely on underclassmen.
Against the Bulldogs (5-5), it was freshman Alexis Moore who led the way with 18 points. Sophomore Maurice Jones added 11 points and six assists. Junior Aaron Fuller had 10 points and nine rebounds.
Jones, however, missed a 3-point try that would have tied the score in the closing seconds, and then Moore lost the ball attempting to free himself for another 3-point look.
When senior guard Jio Fontan injured his knee in August, the Trojans also lost much of their returning leadership.
"Losing Jio was huge in so many ways," O'Neill said. "The thing we're feeling more than anything is his leadership, a guy who can make plays at the end and get guys in the right spots and really push guys a little bit."
USC led, 47-39, midway through the second half but again failed to finish. The Trojans (4-7) have dropped four games by four points or fewer.
Though they opened a decided rebounding edge (35-23) and had 14 offensive rebounds to Georgia's three, the Trojans permitted 51 percent field-goal shooting, including 9 of 13 on 3-point tries.
"Our defense betrayed us down the stretch," O'Neill said. "That's our hope to win games. We can't give up open 3. ... Just bad play. We blew four or five defensive assignments that really hurt us."
Contact the writer: jmiller@ocregister.com
Scott Wolf Colin Cowherd usc football ucla football usc trojans ucla bruins matt barkley
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