BERKELEY – A first half plagued by turnovers left the Cal men's basketball team looking up at visiting USC on the scoreboard and the Bears couldn't close the gap to launch a comeback as they fell 80-62 to the Trojans in the first Pac-12 home game of the season at Haas Pavilion.

Justice Sueing led Cal (7-8, 1-1 Pac-12) with 15 points and a career-high nine rebounds. Marcus Lee added 10 points and eight rebounds while Juhwan Harris-Dyson also matched a career-high with 10 points. Nick Rakocevic led USC with 19 points.

A late flurry of offense to end the first half gave Cal a brief spark heading to intermission but USC (11-5, 2-1) took a 21-point lead to the locker room. 3-pointers by Don Coleman and Roman Davis, the latter's first as a Golden Bear, keyed an 8-0 run for Cal just before the break but a 3 just before the buzzer by USC's Shaqquan Aaron sent the Trojans to halftime with a 41-20 advantage.

Though a 21-2 USC run put Cal down by double digits at the break, the Bears showed enough on the defensive end to frustrate the Trojans into a sub-40 percent shooting percentage for much of the half. But, Cal's troubles offense fed USC's ability to get out on the break as the Bears committed 15 turnovers in the first 20 minutes and the Trojans turned that into a 17-2 edge in points off turnovers.

Rhythm on the offensive end remained elusive after halftime but the Bears did find the going a bit easier as they shot 47 percent from the floor over the final 20 minutes and ended the game on a 13-2 run. USC countered with a strong offensive half of its own though and finished the game at 46 percent from the floor.

"That's a really tough one because I felt like we had a really, really good week of practice," head coach Wyking Jones said. "I felt like our guys gave us everything all week long and we had some good momentum going, winning four of the last five. But, once again, we dug ourselves a hole and that was a veteran team that wasn't going to give it up. They weren't going to let us make a run." 

Cal returns to Haas Pavilion on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. to host UCLA in Pac-12 play. The Bears will spend next weekend on the road with games at Washington and Washington State before returning to Berkeley to host Arizona on Jan. 17 and Arizona State on Jan. 20.

"We are going to stick together. We lose together, we win together and tonight we lost but we always gotta keep pushing forward," Sueing said. "We have a big game on Saturday against UCLA, and we hope to pick it back up and get the win then."