Stanford men’s basketball (8-7, 0-3 Pac-12) turned the ball over 21 times to the Trojans (15-1, 2-1) in a 72-56 loss on Thursday night at USC.

With bang-up big man Reid Travis out with an injured right shoulder, the Cardinal trailed the entire night, the closest they got to a break being a 13-4 run to bring them within two points after 16 minutes of play. Senior Marcus Allen’s season-high and team-leading 13 points made little progress toward slowing the uptempo Trojans, who, though also giving up a large number of turnovers (18), scored 27 points off turnovers to Stanford’s nine.

After struggling from the field in the first half, junior Dorian Pickens tied the team-high 13 point-mark, an effort that included a late three to give the Cardinal whatever was left of a hope. Sophomore Josh Sharma added eight points off the bench including a three-pointer as well as recorded a career-high seven rebounds.

USC’s Jordan McLaughlin led the Trojans with 15, while Chimezie Metu tacked on a double double (14 points, 10 rebounds) and showed off some highlight-reel blocks.

Stanford went 4-15 from behind the arc to USC’s 8-25, with several Cardinal threes chucked up as the shot clock was expiring.

The Cardinal will finish their four-game gauntlet against ranked teams on Sunday when they meet No. 4 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1 starting at 5 p.m.

Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.