USC Closes Road Trip At Oregon Sunday

The USC Trojans (9-7, 2-1) will face the Oregon Ducks (9-6, 0-2) at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore. on Jan. 13 at 5 p.m. USC had its four-game winning streak snapped at Oregon State on Jan. 10 and fell to 2-1 in conference. The last time USC had started 2-0 in Pac-12 play was 2010 and it had not started 3-0 since 2002. USC last started 3-1 in 2016.

BREAKING DOWN OREGON - Oregon is coming off home losses to UCLA 87-84 in OT on Jan. 10 and 77-72 vs. Oregon State on Jan. 5 to open Pac-12 play. Freshman Bol Bol was leading Oregon with a 21.0 points per game average, but had a foot injury and is likely out for the season. Junior Payton Pritchard is averaging 11.9 points per game, one of eight players averaging at least 6.5 points per game. USC won at Oregon 75-70 last season snapping a 14-game losing streak to Oregon. USC then defeated Oregon at home 72-70 and 74-54 in the Pac-12 Tournament and leads the all-time series 63-56 (2 USC wins vacated due to NCAA penalty, original record 65-56).

BOATWRIGHT'S CAREER HIGH NOT ENOUGH IN LOSS AT OSU - Bennie Boatwright scored a career-high 37 points and USC rallied from eight back in the second half to force overtime, but fell 79-74 at Corvallis, Ore. on Jan. 10. Boatwright's three-pointer with 2:58 left tied the game at 64-all and after a Nick Rakocevic layup with 2:23 remaining, USC led 66-64, its first lead since 25-24 at the 7:39 mark of the first half. USC actually led 25-14 early, but OSU went on an 18-0 run to take a seven-point lead and took a 36-31 lead at the break. OSU missed a shot with 18 seconds remaining in regulation, but Ethan Thompson got an offensive rebound and scored to tie it. USC led by two points before Ethan Thompson hit a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock to give OSU a 75-74 lead with one minute remaining in OT. After Boatwright missed a three-pointer, USC was forced to foul and OSU made 4 of its next 6 FT, including three by Stephen Thompson Jr. to put the game away. Stephen Thompson Jr. scored a career-high 34 points to lead the Beavers. .

UCLA ON DECK - USC's next game will be at home vs. UCLA (10-6, 3-0) at the Galen Center on Jan. 19 at 1 p.m. UCLA won at Oregon 87-84 on Jan. 10 and will play at Oregon State on Jan. 13 before facing USC. Sophomore Kris Wilkes leads four Bruins scoring in double figures, with a 17.1 average. USC lost both games to UCLA last season, falling 82-79 at UCLA on Feb. 3 and 83-72 at the Galen Center on March 3. USC has lost four straight to UCLA, but won the previous four against the Bruins. USC trails in the all-time series 108-142 (1 USC win vacated due to NCAA penalty, original record 109-142).

THE "BOAT" SETTING SAIL - USC senior forward Bennie Boatwright has averaged 21.5 points (129 total), 7.3 rebounds (44 total) and 3.0 assists (18 total) in the last six games. He has also made 53.4 percent of his shots in the six games (47-for-88). Boatwright scored a career-best 37 points on 14 of 24 shooting (4 of 9 from 3-point range) at Oregon State on Jan. 10. His 37 points scored were tied for the 11th best all-time in a game by a USC player and the most since O.J. Mayo also scored 37 on March 1, 2008 (player participation later vacated, previous time a Trojan scored 37: Rodney Chatman in 1993). His 14 field goals also are tied for the 10th-most in a game in school history, last done by Brian Scalabrine in 2000.

RAKOCEVIC NAMED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK - USC forward Nick Rakocevic was named the Pac-12 Men's Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 31-Jan. 6. It is the first Pac-12 POW honor for Rakocevic. He averaged 25.0 points and 9.0 rebounds while leading USC to home wins over California (82-73) and Stanford (77-66). Rakocevic made 69.7 percent of his shots for the week, including a stretch of 15 consecutive made baskets from the first half of the California game on Jan. 3 to the first half of the Stanford game on Jan. 6. He scored a career-high 27 points against California, making 12 of 14 shots and grabbed eight rebounds. Rakocevic followed that up with his seventh double-double of the season, with 23 points and 10 rebounds against Stanford.

CHALLENGING COMPETITION - The seven teams USC has lost to this season (Vanderbilt, Texas Tech, Nevada, TCU, Oklahoma, Santa Clara & Oregon State) have a combined 82-23 record. USC has also played two teams with one loss or less (there are only 10 remaining), and four teams currently ranked in the Top 25: No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 10 Nevada, No. 23 Oklahoma and No. 25 TCU.

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Players Mentioned

Bennie Boatwright

Nick Rakocevic