USC puts on an ugly exhibition

USC didn’t so much stage an exhibition game as make a spectacle of itself Saturday night at the Galen Center.

The No. 24-ranked Trojans’ starting lineup against Fresno Pacific included a freshman center who hadn’t played all season and a freshman guard who had played only 11 minutes in two games. O.J. Mayo, Davon Jefferson & Co. remained firmly planted on the bench.

The resulting ragged play was predictable, but not so much the result, a 65-44 loss to an NAIA team that had recently lost to the Master’s College and Vanguard.

“They never should have let Jim Saia go,” USC Coach Tim Floyd joked of his Fresno Pacific counterpart, who had been the Trojans’ interim coach during the 2004-05 season before Floyd took over.

To be fair, the Trojans who struggled against the Sunbirds were hardly the ones who played earlier in the week during USC’s overtime loss to second-ranked Memphis.

Floyd did not play regular starters Mayo, Jefferson, Taj Gibson, Dwight Lewis and Daniel Hackett, saying he wanted to take a long look at his reserves. What he saw was a collection of second- and third-stringers who largely flubbed their chance to make a case for more playing time.

“It’s a little bit of a wake-up call,” said junior forward Keith Wilkinson, who had 10 points and 11 rebounds but made only four of 12 shots. “We know we need to come back out and practice harder.”

Hackett did not play in part because he recently aggravated a groin injury he suffered last month against Miami of Ohio. Redshirt freshman forward Kasey Cunningham played only 17 minutes because he continues to be bothered by a virus that has plagued him since the Oklahoma game, Floyd said.

Freshman center Mamadou Diarra looked lost at times in his first appearance since undergoing hernia surgery Nov. 5. The 7-footer scored only 20 seconds into the game when he converted a bounce pass from guard Angelo Johnson into an easy basket, but that was a rare highlight in a game in which he finished with five points and three rebounds in 15 minutes.

More emblematic of his performance was a play in which Diarra essentially handed the ball to Fresno Pacific guard Andrew David, who dribbled the length of the court for a layup.

Freshman guard Marcus Simmons also struggled in his return from a high ankle sprain that had sidelined him since Nov. 17. He missed all six shots from the field and had four points and four turnovers in 35 minutes.

“I think I’m 100%, just out of shape,” Simmons said. “Toward the end I cramped up. I wasn’t ready for it.”

Senior forward Adrian Sanchez scored 26 points on 10-for-12 shooting for Fresno Pacific, whose black-and-orange uniforms were eerily reminiscent of those worn by Mercer during its season-opening upset of the Trojans. The Sunbirds built a 16-point lead late in the first half and then withstood a 13-0 run by USC early in the second half before pulling away.

The Trojans made only one of 14 three-point shots (7.1%), with Johnson missing all four attempts and Wilkinson making only one of six against a zone defense.

“I would think that a game like tonight would help our reinforcements, our guys off the bench, to understand that they have got to grow in practice and get better,” Floyd said. “Sometimes you can become somewhat delusional sitting on the bench in terms of your ability to impact winning.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com