USC Seeks Road Trip Split At ASU Saturday

The USC Trojans (17-6, 6-4) will play at the Arizona State Sun Devils (14-8, 5-4) at the Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Ariz. on Feb. 8 at 7:00 p.m. PT. The game will air on FS1 with Aaron Goldsmith and Doug Gottlieb calling the action. USC's 17 wins has surpassed its total from the 2018-19 season (16-17). USC has lost consecutive games for the first time this season.

BREAKING DOWN ARIZONA STATE -- The Arizona State Sun Devils (14-8, 5-4) are coming off an 84-66 home win against UCLA on Feb. 6. ASU has won four of its last five games, with three of those games decided by four points for less. Junior point guard Remy Martin leads ASU in scoring with a 19.1 average. USC defeated Arizona State 69-67 at home in the only meeting between the two school last season. USC leads the all-time series 54-41 (2 USC wins vacated due to NCAA penalty, original record 56-41). USC has lost its last six games at ASU, last winning 63-61 on Jan. 27, 2011. The six losses have been by an average of 4.0 points.

USC'S COMEBACK AT NO. 23 ARIZONA FALLS SHORT -- Onyeka Okongwu scored 23 and Daniel Utomi a season-high 22 points but USC's comeback fell short in an 85-80 loss at Arizona on Feb. 6. USC trailed 43-33 at halftime and after Arizona made 7 of its first 11 shots of the second half, the lead had swelled to 63-43. USC started to chip away behind Utomi and Nick Rakocevic who had 17 and 14 points respectively in the second half. USC also turned up the defense holding Arizona without a FG over the final 8:20, but the Wildcats were camped at the foul line making 21 of their 42 second-half points at the charity stripe. USC cut the deficit to 81-77 with 40 seconds remaining on a Utomi 3-pointer, then Dylan Smith hit 1 of 2 FT to make it 82-77. After a Jonah Mathews miss, Josh Green hit 1 of 2 FTs to make 83-77 with 10 seconds left. Mathews then hit a 3-pointer with 5 seconds remaining, but Nico Mannion hit a pair of FT for the final margin. USC made 53.3 percent of its shots in the second half to finish at 50 percent for the game, its first loss this season when shooting 50 percent or more (5-1). USC held Arizona to 43.5 percent in the second half and 45.6 percent for the game to fall to 16-1 this season when outshooting its opponent. Arizona took a USC opponent high 40 FTs, 16 more than USC, and outscored the Trojans by 10 points at the line. The 27 fouls called on USC matched a season high. USC was outscored 18-5 on points off turnovers.

WASHINGTON ON DECK -- The Washington Huskies (12-11, 2-8) will play at Washington State on Feb. 9 before traveling to Los Angles to face USC on Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. Washington has lost five consecutive games and has gone 1-7 since defeating USC 72-40 on Jan. 5 in Seattle, Wash. USC made only 20 percent of its shots in that game, its lowest shooting percentage in a game since Feb. 3, 1956 (15.9 percent). The day after the USC-Washington game, Huskies' point guard Quade Green was ruled academically ineligible. Freshman forward Isaiah Stewart leads UW in scoring (17.7) and rebounding (8.8). USC has lost four consecutive games to Washington and trails in the all-time series 75-72* (2 USC wins vacated due to NCAA penalty, original record 75-74).

THE MAGICAL MARKER -- USC held Utah to 52 points on Jan. 30 to improve to 13-0 this season when holding the opposition to under 70 points scored. In fact, USC is 66-2 in its last 68 games when holding the opposition to 69 points or less and is 81-8 in such games during the Andy Enfield Era.

BOARD BROTHERS -- USC forwards Nick Rakocevic (8.5) and Onyeka Okongwu (9.0) are one of five pairs of teammates in Division I averaging 8.5 rebounds or more per game. The other schools with a tandem of rebounders averaging 8.5 rebounds or more per game are Eastern Washington, Saint Louis, West Virginia and William and Mary.

OKONGWU NAMED AN ABDUL-JABBAR AWARD FINALIST -- USC freshman forward Onyeka Okongwu is one of 10 finalists for the 2020 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award given out to the nation's top collegiate center, it was announced by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Feb. 7.

OKONGWU NEAR THE TOP OF THE CLASS -- Through his first 22 career games, Okongwu is averaging 17.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game, while shooting 60.8 percent from the field. His 65 total blocks already rank second on USC's all-time freshman blocks list, trailing only Taj Gibson's 69 in 2007. Among all freshmen nationally, he ranks first in total blocks (65), second in blocks per game (2.96) and goal percentage (60.8 percent), third in offensive rebounds per game (3.36), tied for fourth in double-doubles (9), fifth in free throws made (91), tied for fifth in rebounds per game (9.0) and in total field goals (141) , sixth in points per game (17.0) and eighth in total points (373) .

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Players Mentioned

Jonah Mathews

Onyeka Okongwu

Nick Rakocevic

Daniel Utomi