Gibson hurts ankle again as injuries continue to pile up

With less than two weeks before the season opener Nov. 10 against Mercer, the USC men’s basketball team finds itself focused as squarely on X-rays and injury reports as on game plans and chalkboard sessions.

The Trojans’ already thinned ranks became so depleted Sunday afternoon at the Galen Center that the team had to terminate its Cardinal and Gold scrimmage with 3 minutes 24 seconds left because there weren’t 10 healthy bodies available.

The game was called after sophomores Dwight Lewis and Kyle Austin hobbled off the court with cramps, the latest to join the ranks of the (barely) walking wounded. Sophomore forward Taj Gibson suffered the day’s most worrisome injury early in the first half, reinjuring the left ankle he had sprained in practice last week.

“It’s not serious,” said Gibson, who nonetheless was walking on crutches following the Cardinal’s 76-68 victory in front of about 500 fans. “I’ll just stay off it for a few days and let it heal this time.”

Each team started the game with only one substitute because the Trojans were already missing three players. Sophomore guard Daniel Hackett was out because of a broken jaw, junior forward RouSean Cromwell was experiencing cold symptoms and freshman guard Marcus Simmons was told to rest this week because of a nagging high ankle sprain.

“He’s trying to go 50%, 60% and getting it tweaked, and it’s not going to get better getting tweaked,” Coach Tim Floyd said of Simmons, who hasn’t been sound since the first day of practice. “He’s just got to rest it and get it healthy so we don’t have an ongoing injury all year long.”

Among the Trojans who escaped the scrimmage unscathed, freshman guard O.J. Mayo scored 34 points on 12-for-19 shooting. Mayo made one of his four three-point shots and converted two free throws during a 12-0 second-half run that put the Cardinal ahead to stay.

“Offensively, he’s poised and matured,” Floyd said of Mayo. “Defensively, he’s like all of our guys. They have to have continued repetitions in what we’re doing as a team in terms of team defense and be a collective group that worries about the other guy.”

Defense wasn’t anyone’s specialty Sunday; both teams shot at least 52.2% in each half. Lewis and freshman forward Davon Jefferson, still recovering from a sprained knee, had 18 points apiece for the Gold.

Floyd called the rash of injuries -- even a team manager has suffered a sprained toe -- the worst he has seen in his coaching career and seemed particularly confounded because the majority occurred in pickup games before practice started.

Gibson suggested that the Trojans were compounding matters by refusing to allot themselves proper rest.

“We kept trying to play through it, that’s our main problem,” Gibson said. “We just ended up hurting ourselves in the long run.”

The injuries forced Floyd to consolidate today’s scheduled two practices into a single session.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com