Though Mayo insisted the strained left groin he suffered in practice this week was not an issue, Hackett said Mayo "was on one leg" and had acknowledged to Hackett before the game that it was bothering him.
Mayo didn't score his first basket until the final two minutes of the first half on an alley-oop feed from Lewis. He scored his other basket midway through the second half on a driving layup.
Sophomore forward Taj Gibson had 16 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks for the Trojans, who were wearing black uniforms with red trim as part of a "Black Out the Bruins" promotion.
UCLA appeared on its way to a comfortable victory with 11:33 remaining when Mayo had the ball stripped and Darren Collison went in for a layup, drew a foul and made the free throw to complete a three-point play that gave the Bruins a 45-33 advantage.
The Trojans eventually pulled to within 46-42 on two free throws by Lewis, who finished with 16 points, before going scoreless over the next 5 1/2 minutes. But the Bruins, who shot only 29.6% in the second half, kept missing shots to keep things close.
Mayo compounded USC's troubles during the scoreless stretch by missing two three-point attempts that could have pulled the Trojans to within three.
He also made a lazy interior pass to Jefferson that was intercepted, and then traveled twice in the last two minutes.
"Any time a player has 10 turnovers, it's going to hurt the team and tonight I did," Mayo said. "I really have to get better in that area."
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ben.bolch@latimes.com
