With a disheartening 69-53 loss to visiting USC on Saturday evening, the Stanford men’s basketball team failed to pick up a win in its final conference homestand of the season. The Cardinal (13-13, 6-9 Pac-10) extended its losing streak to three games and fell to eighth in the Pac-10 standings.

USC (15-12, 7-7), which beat Stanford, 65-42, and held the Card to 22.2-percent shooting in Los Angeles last month, effectively shut down the Cardinal’s offense once again, though this time on the road at Maples Pavilion. The Trojans have been responsible for Stanford’s two lowest-scoring conference games this season, limiting Stanford to 42 and 53 points, respectively. Junior guard Jeremy Green, who had five straight 20-plus point games prior to Saturday night, was held to just 11 points in light of USC senior guard Marcus Simmons’ stingy defense.

“Jeremy is such a scoring threat that guys are going to focus on him,” said freshman forward Josh Huestis. “He’s a focal point of defenses every single game. No matter where he goes, he’s got someone on him.”

Though Stanford opened the game on a 7-3 run, including a three-pointer from freshman forward John Gage in his first collegiate start and a dunk from Green, USC quickly took control of the game. USC junior forward Nikola Vucevic racked up seven early points, aiding the Trojans to a 13-12 lead with 15:24 remaining in the first half. The Cardinal wouldn’t lead for the remainder of the game.

“I thought we started off the first half well, to be quite frank,” said Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins. “They’re a good team. They get after you defensively and are really, really quick. I think as they started to wear us down a bit, it took a toll on us.”

After a decent start, however, Stanford couldn’t get anything going throughout the middle of the first half. Led by Vucevic and redshirt senior forward Alex Stepheson, USC went on a 22-4 run—Huestis scored all four for Stanford on back-to-back plays—to extend its lead to 30-16. After trailing by as much as 18 in the first half, Green, along with redshirt junior forward Josh Owens, freshman forward Anthony Brown and freshman guard Aaron Bright, gave the offense some life and narrowed the deficit to single digits (40-31) at halftime.

“I tried to find holes in the defense, things like that,” Huestis said. “When they tried to throw two guys at Jeremy [Green], the matchups went in our favor.”

Stanford’s momentum did not continue into the second half, with the Trojans pulling away yet again. After USC junior guard Jio Fontan sunk a three followed by two foul shots from Vucevic, the Trojans took their largest lead of the night, 65-45, with 5:31 remaining. The Card only scored two field goals in the game’s final 10:30—a jumper from Green and a layup from Owens—with free throws constituting Stanford’s remaining eight points.

“It was a tough shooting night for all our guys tonight,” Dawkins said. “When that happens, you have to find other ways to win. You have to get to the free-throw line, you have to get to the basket, you have to make plays in other ways, and that’s where our maturity has to be.”

Owens led the way for the Card with 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting and seven rebounds. Freshman forward Dwight Powell finished the game with 10 boards and Green tallied 11 points on 3-for-13 shooting. Huestis had the best game of his Stanford career, scoring 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting and grabbing five rebounds.

For the Trojans, Vucevic led all players with 19 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks. Three of his teammates also scored in double digits: Stepheson with 15, redshirt senior guard Donte Smith with 13 and freshman guard Maurice Jones with 10.

Stanford shot only 33.3 percent on the evening, with an especially lackluster second half in which the team shot 20 percent from the field and went 0-for-11 from behind the arc. USC shot 53.2 percent from the floor and 57.1 percent from long range on the night.

“It was just tough,” Huestis said. “It was a rough shooting night for everybody. We just have to get back into the gym and get better.”

“Basically, we have to get better as a team,” Dawkins agreed. “I think that it showed tonight, and I think that it was good for our players to see that. It’s all about improving from here on out, both individually and collectively.”

In desperate need of a win, the Cardinal will travel to Corvallis, Ore., where it will face Oregon State on Thursday at 6 p.m.