USC To Host Washington State Friday
December 30, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2010
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- The USC Trojans (8-6, 0-1) will host the Washington State Cougars (10-3, 0-1) at the Galen Center on Dec. 31 at 3 p.m. The game will be aired on Fox Sports West with Paul Sunderland and Brandon Granville calling the action and Kelli Tennant providing sideline commentary. With the loss to Washington on Dec. 29, USC failed in its fourth attempt to win three consecutive games this season.
BREAKING DOWN THE COUGARS -- Washington State lost 80-71 at UCLA on Dec. 29 to open Pac-10 play. WSU returned to the mainland after reaching the finals of the Diamond Head Classic in Hawai'i where it fell 84-68 to Butler on Christmas day. WSU has been led by junior Klay Thompson who tops all Pac-10 scorers with a 22.6 per game average. USC leads the all-time series 66-43, but lost both games to the Cougars last season and is 4-11 in the last 15 meetings with Washington State.
USC FALLS TO WASHINGTON IN OVERTIME -- After USC made up a four-point deficit in the final 1:30 of regulation to force overtime, Washington went on a 9-3 run to begin the extra period and defeated the Trojans 73-67 at the Galen Center on Dec. 29 in the Pac-10 opener for both teams. Nikola Vucevic, who finished with a career-high 28 points, hit a pair of free throws with a little more than a minute left to tie the game and send it to overtime. Vucevic added 14 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season. Matt Bryan-Amaning and Terrence Ross led Washington with 18 points each. Washington outrebounded USC 44-28.
UCLA ON DECK -- USC's next game will be against crosstown rival UCLA (9-4, 1-0) who will host Washington on Dec. 31 before facing the Trojans on Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the Galen Center. The Bruins have won six consecutive games since a 66-57 loss vs. Montana. Sophomores Tyler Honeycut (14.8 ppg/8.1 rpg) and Reeves Nelson (14.7 ppg/8.0 rpg) lead the team in scoring and rebounding. USC won both matchup with the Bruins last season, but trail in the all-time series 103-128 (1 win in 2008 later vacated due to NCAA penalty).
FONTAN NAMED PAC-10 PLAYER OF THE WEEK -- Guard Jio Fontan, who transfered to USC from Fordham last January and played in his first game for the Trojans on Dec. 18 at No. 3 Kansas, was named Pac-10 Player of the Week for Dec. 20-26. Fontan scored 13 points and had four assists and three steals in the win at Tennessee on Dec. 21 and scored 21 points with four assists and four steals in the win vs. Lehigh on Dec. 23. He averaged 17.0 points, 4.0 assists and 3.5 steals in the two games.
GO FIGURE... -- With USC's loss to Washington in its conference home opener on Dec. 29, the Trojans dropped to 2-7 in the last nine conference home openers. The only two wins in the the last nine conference home openers were vs. Arizona last season (56-50) and a double-overtime win vs. Washington (86-79) in the 2007 season.
DEFENSE HAS BEEN STINGY -- Since returning from the loss at TCU (81-69) with renewed focus on defense, USC has gone 4-2 and held the opposition to a .361 shooting percentage (116-for-321). Washington's 40.0 percent shooting was the highest by an opponent during the six games. USC held Washington to 55 points in regulation, 35.5 points below its season average.
TEAM TROJAN -- Six of the players in USC's eight-man rotation have had a game with at least 15 points scored and the other two have had 12 points in a game. Six different Trojans have led the team or tied for game-high honors in assists, steals, scoring and blocks.
