No. 17 USC Men's Basketball To Host Arizona State Wednesday

Watch on ESPN2 | Listen Live | Live Stats | Game Notes (PDF)

The USC Trojans (17-3, 11-2) will host the Arizona State Sun Devils (7-9, 4-6) at the Galen Center on Feb. 17 at 5 p.m.  The game will air on ESPN2 with Roxy Bernstein and Adrian Branch calling the action.  USC has won six straight and 12 of its last 13 games.  USC's 11-2 start to Pac-12 play is its best since also beginning the 1992 season 11-2 in conference play. USC is 17-3 through its first 20 games for the first time since also beginning 17-3 during the 1992 season.  The last time USC started a season 18-3 was the 1974 season.

FACING ARIZONA STATE --  Arizona State (7-9, 4-6) is coming off a 75-73 home win against Oregon State on Feb. 14 and has won three of its last four games.  ASU has four players averaging double figures in points, led by Pac-12 leader Remy Martin at 19.2 points per game.  USC won 73-64 at ASU on Jan. 9, snapping a seven-game losing streak for the Trojans in Tempe.  USC leads ASU 6-5 in the last 11 meetings with all the games being decided by 10 points or less.  USC leads the all-time series with ASU 56*-42.(* 2 wins vacated by NCAA penalty, original record 58-42.).

EADDY & MOBLEY LEAD USC TO WIN AT WSU  -- Tahj Eaddy scored 29 points, one off his career high, and Evan Mobley added 20 to lead the Trojans to a 76-65 win at Washington State on Feb. 13. The Trojans ran their current winning streak to six and picked up their 10th consecutive win against the Cougars.  Eaddy scored 11 of USC's first 17 points to get the Trojans off to a 17-5 lead.  Mobley also had 11 rebounds for his ninth double-double and added 6 blocks in the game to keep the Cougars at bay.  USC made 60.7 percent of their first-half shots to lead 41-35 at the break.  USC was held to 39.1 percent shooting in the second half, but held WSU to 34.3 in the second half and 36.4 percent for the game. USC made 51 percent of its shots, its highest shooting percentage in eight games.  USC made 45.5 percent of hits 3-pointers and held the Cougars to 12.0 percent from beyond the arc. WSU hung close throughout and cut the deficit to two points at 63-61 with 5:06 remaining.  After a USC timeout, Eaddy and Evan Mobley teamed up to score the next 8 points to open up a 71-61 lead with 1:13 left to put the game away.  

STINGY ON DEFENSE -- USC has held its last seven opponents to under 70 points scored and has held 16 of 20 opponents under 70 points this season. USC held UCLA to 48 points on Feb. 6 and Washington to 54 on Feb. 11, the fewest total points (102) in consecutive games since also allowing a combined 102 points to Oregon State and Oregon on March 8-9, 2018 at the Pac-12 Tournament.  The last time USC allowed fewer than 102 points in consecutive games during the regular season was when it allowed a total of 87 to UC Riverside (W, 70-26) on Dec. 15, 2012 and UC Irvine (L, 54-61) on Dec. 20, 2012.

TROJANS "POLL VAULTING" -- USC is ranked No. 17 in this week's AP poll and No. 18 in the Coaches Polls following a road sweep in Washington.  Last week USC was ranked No. 20 in both polls, the first time it had been ranked in either poll since Week 5 of the 2017-18 season when it was ranked No. 25 in both.  

ARIZONA ON DECK-- USC's next game will be vs. Arizona (14-7, 8-7) at the Galen Center on Feb. 20 at 3 p.m.  Arizona is coming off a 65-63 home loss to Oregon on Feb. 13 and will play at UCLA on Feb. 18 before facing USC.  James Akinjo leads Arizona in scoring with a 14.3 average per game.  USC defeated Arizona 87-73 on Jan. 7 in Tucson, Ariz., snapping a 10-game losing streak at Arizona. USC trails in the all-time series with Arizona 45-68*, but has won four of the last five games.  (*1 USC win and 1 Arizona win vacated due to NCAA penalty, original record 46-69).

SCORING MARGIN BEST SINCE 1971 SEASON -- USC has a +12.2 scoring margin which leads Pac-12 teams. It is also USC's biggest average scoring margin in a season since the 1970-71 team went 24-2 and defeated opponents by an averaged of 14.0 points per game.

DOING IT WITH DEFENSE -- USC has held its opponents to 38.0 percent shooting this season, fourth-best in the country. Stanford's 51.9 percent shooting against USC on Feb. 2 was the only time this season a Trojan opponent shot over 50 percent.  

THE SULTANS OF SWAT -- USC has had 113 blocks in its first 20 games for an average of 5.7 blocks per game, fifth in the country.  Freshman Evan Mobley is averaging 3.15 blocks per game, 4th in the country and first among freshmen. Mobley already ranks third on USC's all-time freshman blocks list (63) and 9th on the school's all-time top 10 list for a single season.

THE PAINT PATROL -- USC has outrebounded its opponents 814-648 through the first 20 games and has outscored the opposition 692-476 on points scored in the paint.  USC's +8.3 rebound margin leads the Pac-12 and ranks 15th in the country.

MOBLEY EARNS 6TH PAC-12 FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK HONOR -- Evan Mobley was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the week of Feb. 8-14 as he averaged 18.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.0 blocks and 2.0 assists in the road sweep of the Washington schools.  Mobley extended his Pac-12 record with his sixth Freshman of the Week selection.

WINNING WAYS -  USC's .850 winning percentage is 10th-best in the country.

EFFICIENT OFFENSE -- USC is third among Pac-12 with an 75.4 scoring average and with a leads with a +12.2 scoring margin.  USC also ranks second among Pac-12 teams with a 46.7 shooting percentage this season. 

THE GOOD AND THE BAD -- The good news is USC ranks 13th in the country with 464 free throw attempts. The bad news is it has made just 303 of those shots for a 65.3 shooting percentage from the charity stripe, which ranks 307th in the country (out of 340 teams).

EADDY HAS BEEN A KEY ADDITION - USC graduate transfer guard Tahj Eaddy's baseline floater four minutes into the second half in the opener vs. CBU on Nov. 25 gave him 11 points in the game and 1,001 in his career. Eaddy scored 224 at Southeast Missouri State and 766 at Santa Clara. Eaddy finished the game with 18 points, including hitting the three-pointer that tied the game at 79 in regulation.  Eaddy  is second on the team with a 13.5 scoring average and second on the team with 52 assists. Eaddy leads USC with 34 three-point baskets made and is connecting at a 35.4 percent rate from beyond the arc.  Eaddy has scored in double figures in 13 of the last 16 games and 15 times overall, second on the team.