Sophomore guard Jordan McLaughlin led a late surge to help Southern California beat Colorado 79-72 on Wednesday night at the Galen Center in Los Angeles.

McLaughlin scored 25 points for USC (19-7, 8-5 Pac-12 Conference). Trojans junior guard Julian Jacobs added 17 points.

Senior forward Josh Scott scored 17 points for Colorado (19-8, 8-6). Sophomore guard George King had 13 points and nine rebounds. Junior forward Wesley Gordon contributed 13 points and seven rebounds, and junior guard Josh Fortune added 10 points.

USC took a 14-9 lead on a dunk by sophomore guard Elijah Stewart, but Colorado staged a 9-0 run to take an 18-14 lead on a dunk by Scott. A jumper by senior guard Xavier Talton with five seconds to play in the opening half gave the Buffaloes a 37-29 lead at the break.

Colorado went up by nine early in the second half and led by 15 with nine minutes to go, but USC mounted 7-2 and 10-0 runs to cut Colorado's lead to 64-62. McLaughlin tied the game with a layup and made a 3-pointer to give the Trojans a 68-65 lead. USC outscored Colorado 17-7 over the last 3:51.