GAME NOTES: After dropping to the consolation bracket of the Charleston Classic, the USC Trojans and the Drexel Dragons will square off on Friday afternoon at TD Arena.

The winner moves on to play either Penn State or Cornell in the fifth-place game. The two losers will play for seventh place.

In the opening game of the event on Thursday afternoon, USC fell flat against Akron and suffered a 66-46 loss to fall to the consolation side of the bracket. The Trojans are now 1-2 on the young season, with their only triumph coming at home to Tennessee Tech on Monday, 70-58.

Drexel has gotten off to an even slower start than USC, as it has lost all three of its contests to open the season. The Dragons fell on the wrong end of a 66-46 decision to Miami-Florida in the opening round, and they have scored fewer than 50 points in all three games.

In the only previous meeting between the teams back in December of 1980, USC claimed an 82-53 victory.

The Trojans never had much of a chance against Akron in the opening round. They were able to cut their double-digit second-half deficit to seven points midway through the second stanza, but they could not build upon that momentum, as they eventually suffered the 20-point defeat. Their poor shooting night (28.3 percent from the field, including 2-of-12 from 3-point range) spoiled an impressive showing on the other end of the floor, where they held Akron to only 40 percent shooting. Nikola Jovanovic narrowly missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, while Malik Martin was the only other player in double figures with 10 points.

Despite shooting field goals at a higher percentage (.415) than its opponents (.375) this season, USC has only put up 61.3 ppg while giving up 66.7 rpg, mostly due to its awful -8.0 turnover margin. The young roster, which consists of zero seniors and just three juniors, is led by Jordan McLaughlin (14.0 ppg, 5.0 apt) and Katin Reinhardt (12.0 ppg).

The Dragons were able to keep their opening-round close until early in the second half when USC pulled away with a 16-3 run. They never had much of a chance considering they shot only 31.4 percent from the field (including 6- of-20 from 3-point range), even though they did keep a talented Miami squad in check to the tune of just 43.9 percent field goal shooting. Tavon Allen netted a team-high 13 points, although he hurt the team more than he helped by shooting a woeful 4-of-17 from the floor. Freddie Wilson came off the bench to tally 12 points in the setback.

Drexel has set an unfortunate trend of awful offensive production early this season, as it shoots a lowly 31.4 percent from the field for 47.7 ppg, which spoils an impressive scoring defense (61.0 ppg). Damion Lee (14.7 ppg) and Allen (10.7 ppg) are the top scoring options, but the duo has combined to knock down just 22-of-80 field goal attempts (.275).

In what's almost certainly going to be a low-scoring affair, expect the Trojans and their superior shooters to down the lackluster Dragons.