In the wake of a horrific on-campus shooting Saturday afternoon that left two dead and nine others injured, mourning Brown University announced on Tuesday that it has canceled its men’s and women’s basketball games scheduled for Sunday.

The men’s team was scheduled to travel to Los Angeles to take on USC, and the women’s team was scheduled to host Monmouth at Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

Later Tuesday, USC (10-1 overall), ranked just outside the Top 25 in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Polls, announced that UC Santa Cruz (5-6), an NCAA Division III program, agreed to fill the new-found opening on its schedule. The Banana Slugs face the Trojans at the Galen Center at 1 p.m.

Banana Slugs coach Matt Malone said USC reached out Monday.

“We were scheduled to be on winter break after December 18, so we held a team vote and everyone wanted to play,” Malone said. “Once we were able to figure out travel and logistics for our student-athletes, it was an easy decision. It’s going to be a great experience for our guys to play in a Big Ten environment and allow our Southern California alumni to see us against a high-level opponent.”

USC has agreed to help with UCSC’s travel expenses.

It will be the first meeting between the programs.

“We are heartbroken by the tragedy on Brown University’s campus and extend our sincere condolences to the families and the entire Brown University community,” Trojans coach Eric Musselman told USCTrojans.com. “We are thinking of them and wishing them strength during this extremely difficult time.

“We want to thank UC Santa Cruz for coming in to play us on short notice. We’re looking forward to welcoming them and their program to play at USC, and we hope our fans will join us as we come together through the game—especially at this time of year. We invite everyone to be in the building, support both teams, and share in the spirit of community and togetherness as we head into the holidays.”

The Trojans have two players, guard/forward Chad Baker-Mazara (21.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg) and junior guard Rodney Rice (20.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg), averaging more than 20 points per game, and two others, senior forward Ezra Ausar (16.8 ppg, 5.6 rpg) and sophomore forward Jacob Cofie (10.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg), averaging double digits in scoring.

USC features just one player on its roster under 6 feet, 5-11 junior guard Jordan Marsh. The team’s second “shortest” player is 6-4 Jonah Goorin, a sophomore guard out of Sacred Heart Cathedral in San Francisco.

The Banana Slugs have three players averaging double digits in scoring, granted, against mostly D-III competition: senior center/forward Joseph Espy (16.0 ppg, 8.4 rpg), senior forward Leo Wagner (13.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg), and senior wing Caden Breznikar (11.5 ppg, 8.6 rpg).

UCSC last faced a D-I program in the regular season in 2012-13, when it suffered a 94-54 loss to host San Jose State University.

The Banana Slugs have played several exhibitions against D-I programs over the past decade, including University of San Francisco this season, Santa Clara University in 2019-20, Fresno State University in 2017-18, and Arizona State University in 2016-17.