Cardinal Falls Late to USC in Maples

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- The Cardinal led for most of the game, but USC rallied late to come from behind and beat Stanford 72-66 on Tuesday night.

Jaiden Delaire scored a career-high 22 points and Michael O'Connell added a career-best 20 points for Stanford. Stanford shot 51.9 percent from the field in the game.

Evan Mobley scored 23 points with 11 rebounds and Drew Peterson scored 15 to lead USC. The Trojans lead for a mere 5-1/2 minutes.

After O'Connell's layup brought the Cardinal into a tie at 66 with 1:45 left, Tahj Eaddy put the Trojans up for good on a layup 27 seconds later.

On Stanford's next possession, Mobley blocked a reverse layup attempt by Oscar da Silva with 57 seconds left. After USC called a timeout, Eaddy drove, spun, and buried a 12-foot fadeaway with 29 seconds left to seal the win.

Eaddy finished with 14 points on 7-for-13 shooting despite missing all four of his 3-point attempts. The Trojans struggled from behind the arc missing 13 of 17 attempts.

With the win, USC (14-3, 8-2 Pac-12 Conference) moved within a game of first-place and No. 21-ranked UCLA (13-3, 9-1). The two square off on the Trojans home court on Saturday.

Stanford (10-7, 6-5) played in Maples Pavilion for the first time this season after playing all its previous home contests in Santa Cruz, California due to COVID-19 restrictions in Santa Clara County.

Stanford heads to Berkeley, California to face Cal on Thursday on ESPN2.