USC men's basketball bounces back, wins at Arizona State 77-69

USC responded from one of its worst performances of the year with one of the team's best.

Following a disappointing 81-66 road loss to No. 11 Arizona on Thursday, USC (14-6, 6-3 in Pac-12) won at Arizona State (15-5, 6-3) 77-69 on Saturday night in a battle of NCAA Tournament hopefuls. The victory earned the Trojans a Quad 1 win.

USC led 43-33 at the half and the Trojans opened the second half with a 7-0 run to take control. USC led by double digits for the majority of the second half, but struggled to close out the game. ASU ended on a 16-0 run fueled by six Trojan turnovers.

USC shot 49% from the field and spread the wealth offensively — four players finished in double figures. Drew Peterson led the Trojans with 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting. Boogie Ellis scored 18 points and Tre White and Vince Iwuchukwu each added 12. Iwuchukwu had the best game of his young career. He also grabbed five rebounds and blocked a shot. Kobe Johnson scored eight points for USC.

Warren Washington put in a game-high 21 points to lead the Sun Devils in defeat.

USC did not miss a free throw going 14 for 14 from the line. The Trojans also won the rebounding battle 39-33. Coming into the game, ASU was the fourth-best rebounding team in the Pac-12 averaging 38.6 boards per game.

NEXT UP

USC will host No. 5 UCLA on Thursday. When the Trojans played the Bruins earlier this season, USC fell 60-58.

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