USC To Host Princeton Tuesday At Galen

The USC Trojans (6-3) will host the Princeton Tigers (4-6) at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, Calif. on Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. USC is 5-1 at home this season and was 14-3 at the Galen Center last season. USC will be hosting 600 underserved youth tonight as part of the Boys Holiday Leadership Summit sponsored by Trojan Outreach. The Trojan guests will receive holiday gifts provided by Grant & Bowman and wrapped by the USC men's basketball team. USC Trojan Outreach is the only athletics based community affairs department in the Pacific-12.

BREAKING DOWN THE TIGERS -- Princeton (6-4) has won its last two games and is coming off an 80-60 win at Cal Poly on Dec. 16. 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 (18.4 ppg) and Myles Stephens (14.6 ppg) lead the Tigers in scoring. USC won the only other meeting between the two schools, 70-52 on Dec. 28, 1972.

USC SHOOTS DOWN UCSB -- USC had its hottest shooting night of the season to date and defeated UCSB 98-87 at the Galen Center on Dec. 17. USC made 56.7 percent of its shots, 62.5 percent in the 2nd half, and made 50 percent of its three-pointers in the game. Jordan McLaughlin orchestrated the attack with a double-double of 10 points and a USC record and a Pac-12 record-tying total of 19 assists. Chimezie Metu had a career-high 31 points and Nick Rakocevic had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. USC led by as many as 25 points in the second half, but UCSB got hot to close to within 10 points at 79-69 with seven minutes remaining. Metu answered with a jumper and back-to-back dunks and the Gauchos could get no closer than the final margin of 11, as they scored the final 9 points of the game in the final 1:30. USC made its final six shots of the first half to open a 52-33 lead at the break.

TIS THE SEASON OF SHARING -- Jordan McLaughlin's 19 assists on Dec. 17 vs. UCSB broke his school record of 16 assists in a game set in 2015 and tied the Pac-12 single-game record for assists in a game of 19 set by Russell Brown of Arizona in 1979. USC's 28 assists vs. UCSB were its most in a game since registering 29 vs. George Mason on Dec. 20, 1995.

AKRON ON DECK AT THE DIAMOND HEAD CLASSIC -- USC will next play Akron (6-2) in the first game of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawai'i on Dec. 22 at 4:30 p.m. PT. The winner of the USC-Akron game will play the winner of the Middle Tennessee-Princeton game on Dec. 23, while the other two teams will meet the same day. Akron went 27-9 last season and won the Mid-American regular season title. Akron returned one starter and five lettermen from that squad. Sophomore forward Daniel Utomi leads Akron in scoring and rebounding, with averages of 20.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. This is the first meeting between the two school.

COMPACT SCHEDULE -- USC is in the midst of playing eight games in 18 days (2-0), after beginning the season with seven games in 34 days.

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 13.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 8.1 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 sixth among current players with 530 career assists. He also ranks sixth in steals (162), 11th in three-pointers (147) and ninth in minutes played on USC's all-time lists.

TUESDAY'S WITH TROJANS -- Tonight's contest is USC's only scheduled Tuesday game of the season. USC has won its last 13 games on Tuesdays, last losing to Memphis in NYC on Dec. 4, 2007.

CLEANING THE GLASS -- USC has 137 rebounds to its opponent's 84 in the last three games (45.7 rpg to 28.0 rpg). USC has had six games this season with at least 40 rebounds and has had five games in which it has had at least 10 more rebounds than its opponent. USC is 5-1 in games it has more rebounds than the opposition.

A SLEW FOR STEW -- USC senior Elijah Stewart surpassed the 1,000 points scored mark during the win at Vanderbilt on Nov. 19 and now has 1,084 career points scored. Stewart has made 20 three-pointers this season to give him 195 career 3-point makes, fourth on USC's all-time list and 8 behind Desmon Farmer, who is third on USC's all-time list with 203. Stewart has also played 111 consecutive games, the most of any player in the Pac-12. Stewart matched a career high with seven there-point makes vs. Oklahoma on Dec. 8. He has made at least one three-pont basket in all but one game this season (Dec. 14 vs. Santa Clara).

TROJANS TO PLAY AT THE DIAMOND HEAD CLASSIC - USC will be playing in the Diamond Head Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i from Dec. 22-25. USC's first-round opponent will by Akron on Dec. 22. Akron went 27-9 and won the 2016-17 Mid-American regular season title, but return just one starter and five lettermen from that team. The second-round game will be against either Middle Tennessee or Princeton on Dec. 23. USC's final game of the tournament will be against an opponent from the group of Davidson, Hawai'i, Miami and New Mexico State on Christmas day. USC won the inaugural Diamond Head Classic in 2009, defeating Western Michigan, Saint Mary's and UNLV.

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Players Mentioned

Jordan McLaughlin

Chimezie Metu

Nick Rakocevic

Elijah Stewart