USC Men's Hoops Hosts UC Santa Barbara Sunday

The USC Trojans (5-3) will host the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (8-2) at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif. on Dec. 17 at 5:00 p.m. USC is 4-1 at home this season and was 14-3 at the Galen Center last season.

BREAKING DOWN THE GAUCHOS -- The Gauchos won their last game 91-69 at Montana State on Dec. 9, their sixth consecutive win, and have not played since then. UCSB is 3-2 in true road games this season. Sophomore guard Max Heidegger leads four Gauchos in double figures with a 23.4 points per game average. UCSB returned four starters and 13 lettermen from last season's team, which went 6-22. USC leads the all-time series 13-1, winning the last game 96-72 at the Galen Center on Nov. 27, 2016. USCB's win in the series was on Dec. 3, 2002 at Santa Barbara (69-53).

USC TAKES CARE OF SANTA CLARA -- USC looked like a ranked team in its first game this season as an unranked squad, posting a wire-to-wire 82-59 win over Santa Clara at the Galen Center on Dec. 14. The win snapped the Trojans three-game losing streak. Nick Rakocevic made his first start of the season and had career highs in points (16) and rebounds (10) for his first double-double. Chimezie Metu (20 points/11 rebounds) and Bennie Boatwright (21 points/11 rebounds) also had double-doubles, the first time USC had three players in a game with double-doubles since Dec. 19 2009. USC outrebounded Santa Clara 52-27 and outscored them 36-22 on points in the paint. Jordan McLaughlin had 10 assists and nine points, just missing out on a double-double of his own. USC made 49.2 percent of its shots, while holding Santa Clara to a season-low 31.3 percent shooting.

PRINCETON ON DECK -- USC will next host Princeton (3-6) at the Galen Center on Dec. 19 at 8:00 p.m. The Tigers will play at Cal Poly on Dec. 16 before facing USC. USC and Princeton could potentially meet again on Dec. 23 in the Diamond Head Classic, depending on the results of the games on Dec. 22. Princeton returned two starters and 12 lettermen from last season's 23-7 team which won the Ivy League and lost by two points in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Notre Dame. Junior guards Devin Cannady (19.0 ppg) and Myles Stephens (14.4 ppg) lead the Tigers in scoring. USC won the only other meeting between the two schools, 70-52 on Dec. 28, 1972.

COMPACT SCHEDULE -- USC is in the midst of playing eight games in 18 days (1-0), after beginning the season with seven games in 34 days.

TRI-TOWERS OF POWER -- Forwards Bennie Boatwright (21 points/11 rebounds), Chimezie Metu (20 points/11 rebounds) and Nick Rakocevic (16 points/10 rebounds) all posted a double-double in the game vs. Santa Clara on Dec. 14. It was the first game with three Trojans posting a double-double since Dec. 19, 2009 vs. Tennessee (Mike Gerrity, Alex Stepheson and Nikola Vucevic).

ALL AROUND THE BLOCK -- USC ranks 12th in the country with 6.3 blocks per game. Chimezie Metu leads USC with 17 blocks and Bennie Boatwright has registered 12. Boatwright had seven blocks all of last season. Chimezie Metu now ranks fifth on USC's all-time blocks list with 126 and Elijah Stewart ranks eighth with 112 blocks. Metu has at least one block in every game this season.

McGLAUGHLIN RISING UP THE CHARTS -- Senior point guard Jordan McLaughlin continues to lead the Trojans and move up some of USC's all-time lists. McLaughlin is averaging 13.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists this season. He leads all Pac-12 players in assists per game and is second in steals per game (2.3). McLaughlin ranks second on USC's all-time list and is ninth among current players with 511 career assists. He also ranks sixth in steals (159), tied for 11th in three-pointers (145) and ninth in minutes played on USC's all-time lists.

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Players Mentioned

Bennie Boatwright

Jordan McLaughlin

Chimezie Metu

Nick Rakocevic

Elijah Stewart