Trojans need to turn it around quickly

Lesson learned or opportunity lost? Check back with USC in 48 hours.

The No. 22 Trojans might find out that quickly whether the deficiencies that plagued them during a 59-55 loss to No. 4 Kansas on Sunday at the Galen Center are one-game shortcomings or chronic concerns.

Less than an hour after Jayhawks guard Mario Chalmers made a decisive three-pointer from about 25 feet with 20 seconds remaining, USC was already on its way to the airport for a flight to New York and a date Tuesday with No. 3 Memphis in the Jimmy V Classic.

Trojans freshman guard O.J. Mayo departed with a list of concerns that he was likely to check at least twice before the game against the Tigers at Madison Square Garden.

“Knocking down free throws, executing plays, playing late into the shot clock and getting good shots, stopping a lot of easy baskets and not fouling too much on defense -- there’s a lot of things you can pinpoint in this game,” said Mayo, who scored 19 points but made only six of 21 shots.

“We’ve just got to build off this and continue to get better as a team.”

USC (6-2) took the Jayhawks (7-0) down to the final seconds, its fans in a season-high crowd of 10,017 howling as Kansas worked the shot clock into single digits while holding a 55-53 lead.

Jayhawks senior Rodrick Stewart, the former USC guard who transferred during the middle of his sophomore year, swung the ball to Chalmers well behind the three-point arc, and the junior elevated for the game-clinching shot with less than two seconds left on the shot clock.

“They ought to give him a four-pointer for where that thing came from,” USC Coach Tim Floyd said.

Said Mayo: “It was a shot that we would like for them to take maybe if we played it again. He just knocked it down.”

Defense wasn’t the problem for USC, which lost for the second time in three games on its home court. The Trojans forced 22 turnovers and held the Jayhawks to 37.9% shooting -- the first time Kansas hasn’t made more than half its shots all season.

“I thought we played with tremendous madness on the defensive end,” Floyd said. “We’ve got to not play with madness on the offensive end, and I thought we did in stretches.”

With sophomore forward Taj Gibson in foul trouble for the second consecutive game, the Trojans’ offense stagnated and consisted primarily of long jump shots, many of them contested.

USC endured a 4-minute 31-second scoreless stretch in the second half after forward Keith Wilkinson was called for a foul attempting to box out Kansas center Sasha Kaun that infuriated Floyd and resulted in a technical foul on the USC bench.

“[The official] said when I was boxing him out, I was driving him out and he said I didn’t stop,” Wilkinson said. “I thought that was a box out.”

Floyd said the referees told him the technical resulted from assistant coach Phil Johnson rising from his seat on the bench.

“They called it on an assistant standing up,” Floyd said sarcastically. “And I’m sure that when I go back and watch the film that I will not see their assistants stand up during the game.

“I’m sure that they stayed secured and locked down the entire game. I’m sure that that’s what I’ll see.”

Chalmers’ technical free throw started a 9-0 run that gave the Jayhawks a 51-42 lead with 6:29 to go. But the Trojans fought back on the strength of their defense and six consecutive points from freshman forward Davon Jefferson (17 points), whose free throws with 53 seconds left pulled USC to within 55-53 and set up Chalmers’ final basket.

Gibson fouled out for the second consecutive game, concluding a frustrating stretch in which he has averaged only two points and 17 minutes. Kansas also out-rebounded the Trojans, 42-30, including a 14-6 advantage on the offensive boards.

The Trojans had a lot to ponder on their cross-country flight.

“Hopefully, we’ll get another shot and be in the same position,” sophomore guard Daniel Hackett said. “We’ll know what to do.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com

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UP NEXT FOR USC

Tuesday vs. Memphis, Madison Square Garden, New York, 6 p.m. PST, ESPN -- The Trojans’ early-season schedule only gets tougher as they take on the No. 3 Tigers (6-0) in the Jimmy V Classic. Though the game is being played at a neutral site, Memphis might feel a bit more at home considering the Tigers already defeated Oklahoma and Connecticut at Madison Square Garden in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic last month. Junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts averages 21.8 points, and freshman guard Derrick Rose averages 17 for the Tigers.