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Another big game for Desmond Claude as USC men defeat Iowa

At the end of a long, emotional week, USC’s basketball staff emerged one by one from the Galen Center tunnel just before tip Tuesday, relieved as ever to be back home. Days earlier, as wildfires ravaged their newly adopted city, the team was 2,000 miles away, stuck first in a southern Indiana hotel then in a similar one in Illinois, reduced to following helplessly along on their phones.

The uncertainty made for an unnerving few nights. USC assistant coach Quincy Pondexter couldn’t be sure at first whether his home in Pasadena survived the Eaton fire. Family of assistant coach Will Conroy evacuated, as did the girlfriend of USC’s director of basketball operations Caleb Cline.