![\"Chatsworth](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769070256_912_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nLOS ANGELES \u2014 Alijah Arenas struggled in his long-awaited debut for Southern California on Wednesday night against Northwestern after completing his recovery from a knee injury he sustained last summer following his recovery from a car crash last spring.<\/p>\n
Arenas had eight points in a 74-68 loss to the Wildcats as the Trojans fell to 14-5, 3-5 in the Big Ten. He played 29 minutes but shot just 3 for 15 from the floor, including 0 for 6 on 3-point attempts. He struggled at the free-throw line with a 2-for-6 effort. He also had two rebounds and two assists.<\/p>\n
The freshman guard’s debut came one month after his return to practice for the Trojans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to have him back with the rest of the guys,\u201d coach Eric Musselman said last month following Arenas’ first practice. \u201cHe\u2019s got such a great basketball IQ and brings a tremendous amount of energy. It looked like he had been a part of practice for quite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arenas, the son of former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, was involved in a car crash that led to him being placed in an induced coma in April due to smoke inhalation. He spent six days in the hospital following the single-car crash in which Arenas hit a tree but didn\u2019t suffer major injuries.<\/p>\n
Arenas was ready to practice following the car crash when he needed surgery to repair the torn meniscus in his knee.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-6 Arenas was a McDonald’s All-American and five-star recruit from Chatsworth (Calif.) High School whose debut was highly anticipated.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chatsworth High School basketball player Alijah Arenas prepares to shoot a free throw in the second half of a boys CIF State Division II championship basketball game, in Sacramento, March 15, 2025. Credit: AP\/Keith Birmingham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Alijah Arenas struggled in his long-awaited debut for Southern California on Wednesday night against Northwestern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,319,217,6,231,772,1544,2148],"class_list":{"0":"post-552793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-basketball","14":"tag-ncaab","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115937795892648754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}