Elijah Stewart scored 15 points, Nikola Jovanovic added 14 and USC pulled away down the stretch to defeat UC Santa Barbara 75-63 on Thursday night.
Julian Jacobs added 12 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and four steals for the Trojans (6-2), who played their first true road game.
The Gauchos (2-4) were within 61-59 on Gabe Vincent's 3-pointer with 5:54 left but Jacobs quickly answered with a 3 to start a 10-2 run that made it 71-61 on Chimezie Metu's tip-in with 1:15 left.
Vincent led Santa Barbara with 16 points, hitting 4 of 7 behind the arc.