After a downright listless defeat at the hands of UCLA that extended Penn State’s losing streak to five straight games, the Nittany Lions sought to salvage something out of their west coast trip at UCLA’s cross-town rival USC. With Yanic Konan Niederhauser back after missing the last two games, there was some optimism that PSU could perhaps start to turn things around scoring-wise and perhaps even defensively.
That optimism of course, turned out to be swiftly unfounded. With the Lions trailing only 15-13, they went ice cold over the next six minutes, while USC caught fire and went on an 16-1 run that pushed their lead as high as 17 points in the first half at 31-14.