Senior Alex Stepheson didn't flinch or hesitate.

With 4:22 remaining and USC leading rival UCLA 56-50, Stepheson grabbed his fifth of six offensive rebounds and threw down a monster two-handed dunk.

Playing in his first game without a brace since breaking his left hand in the season opener, Stepheson had one of the best games of his career to lead USC (10-6, 2-1) to a 63-52 victory.

"I had to mentally get used to putting [the hand] out there again without fear of it getting hit," he said. "Once I got past the first half and realized it's not going to hit again and not going to get re-broken, I was able to catch the ball and get some rebounds."

Stepheson recorded his sixth double-double of the season finishing with 13 points and 16 rebounds as the Trojans knocked off the Bruins (9-6, 1-2) for the fourth consecutive time.

-- BREAKING IT DOWN --

Key moment: Tyler Honeycutt trimmed the USC lead to 58-52 with 4:01 remaining. But after his offensive putback, UCLA went more than three minutes without even attempting a field goal.

USC stiffened its defense, causing four consecutive Bruin turnovers. The biggest one coming with 1:21 remaining when Stepheson stood his ground to draw an offensive foul on guard Malcolm Lee.

Player of the game: Alex Stepheson. The 6-foot-9 Stepheson often gets overlooked because fellow forward Nikola Vucevic leads the Trojans in scoring and rebounding. But Sunday night, not even the 6-foot-10, 305-pound frame of UCLA center Joshua Smith could overshadow "Big Al."

Despite going up against Smith and his 55 extra pounds, Stepheson was a beast on the boards. He snatched nearly every ball near him to finish with a career-high 16 rebounds.

"His energy on the boards was key for us," USC coach Kevin O'Neill said. "His effort was tremendous."

Stepheson played a game-high 38 minutes and was a presence in the middle. On the defensive end, he bodied up Smith, the biggest opponent Stepheson said he's ever played. He held Smith to only eight points and three rebounds. On offense, Stepheson was 5-for-10 from the floor and threw down three dunks -- two coming after he grabbed offensive rebounds.

"Stepheson really did a nice job in the middle and we didn't control him," UCLA coach Ben Howland said.

Most Spectacular Play: Maurice Jones is quick, but no play thus far this season may have exemplified the freshman's speed as well as a loose ball in the second half. The ball was stripped away from Reeves Nelson and was bouncing toward midcourt when Jones sped toward the ball and lunged. Before sprawling onto the court, he tapped the ball away from a UCLA player trying to corral it.

"Those are the type of plays that win games," Jones said. "I was just trying to grab it. But I couldn't get it, so I just tapped it ahead to Jio."

Streaking across halfcourt, Fontan grabbed Jones' tip pass and took it to the basket where he was fouled from behind by a Bruin defender.

Unsung Hero: Student section. For only the fourth time in the five-year Galen Center history, USC had a sellout crowd of 10,258. But it was the student section that was out in full effect and helped propel the Trojans to victory.

An hour before the game, USC's players came out to a packed and boisterous student section clad in yellow "Trojan Fever" t-shirts. The students remained noisy throughout the entirety of the game constantly yelling at the UCLA players, commenting on things such as Nelson's tattoos and Smith's size.

"The crowd helped pick us up. That's the first time the crowd was huge like that in a while, especially the student section," Stepheson said. "That was really the sixth man for us and gave us an energy boost in the second half."

"Step It Up:" Garrett Jackson. Forwards Alex Stepheson and Nikola Vucevic are both averaging more than 34 minutes per game. Only four games this season, have one of the two not played 35+ minutes. The two only have a combined six games (Stepheson 4, Vucevic 2) where they have played less than 30 minutes.

The problem is coach Kevin O'Neill has no depth at the forward position. Freshman Curtis Washington isn't ready to play major college basketball. Evan Smith had season-ending shoulder surgery. Transfers Aaron Fuller and DeWayne Dedmon are athletically ineligible.

O'Neill needs freshman Garrett Jackson to step up and earn more minutes. Against UCLA, he only played 88 seconds. He grabbed a defensive rebound, but on the Bruins' other two offensive possessions, Jackson committed fouls. Even worse, despite fouling, he allowed the offensive player to score both times.

Key stat: 25.9. In the first half, UCLA shot 57 percent from the field. Reeves Nelson and Joshua Smith combined for 16 points in the paint making 7-of-9 shots. At halftime, Jio Fontan spoke to the team before coach Kevin O'Neill entered the locker room.

"We were down two points and we kind of gave up a lot of stuff. They scored points off transition, some in-bounds errors," Fontan said. "I told [the team], once we cut down on the mental errors, we'll pull away with the game."

Fontan was right. After his speech, the Trojans' defense clamped down, holding the Bruins to only 25.9 percent shooting in the second half. Nelson had only two points and second leading scorer, Tyler Honeycutt, shot 1-of-7 from the field in the second half.

Sideline Strategy: Guarding Honeycutt. Just as he does every game, O'Neill gave Marcus Simmons the unenviable task of guarding the opposition's best perimeter player. For UCLA, Simmons was matched up with Tyler Honeycutt. However, in the second half, Simmons got into foul trouble. He picked up his fourth foul with 10 minutes remaining.

"He did a great job on him. Marcus always does," O'Neill said. "The other guys that did a really good job on him were Donte and Jio at different times. We wanted to get into his airspace, make him put it on the floor and try to make plays. For a night, we were able to stop him."

Where They Stand: With the win, USC moves to 3-0 against UCLA under O'Neill. The Trojans have won four consecutive against their rivals, meaning only four players on the roster have lost to the Bruins.

"They are the tradition in the Pac-10 in basketball. Everybody is measured against them," O'Neill said. "I feel very fortunate to beat them four straight times and three times since I've been here. It won't go on forever."

USC is now in third place with a 2-1 conference record. They kept within striking distance of Washington (4-0) and Arizona (3-1). It was important for the Trojans to not lose a second home conference game this early in the Pac-10 schedule because USC will be on the road at the Oregon schools next week.

The Trojans will likely have to play in an extremely hostile environment in Eugene as the Ducks will be opening up the new Matthew Knight Arena, which hadn't been ready in time for the beginning of the season. The Ducks could also have a national championship football team to honor.

It will be up to Vucevic, who led all scorers with 20 points Sunday night, and Fontan to take the crowd out of the game early.

However, the Trojans are more talented than either Oregon or Oregon State and have the opportunity to set themselves up nicely with three of their next four opponents coming from the bottom half of the conference standings.

USC is still sitting on the bubble amongst potential NCAA tournament teams. Last week, ESPN's Joe Lunardi had them as an 11-seed and one of the final four teams to make the tournament. 

To reach Shotgun Spratling, click here, or follow him on Twitter @BlueWorkhorse.

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