Field Level Media
Jan 26, 2019
Bennie Boatwright scored 17 points and his go-ahead 3-pointer from the top of the key with 11.1 seconds remaining helped the USC Trojans extend their winning streak to three games with a 69-67 Pac-12 victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils at the Galen Center on Saturday.
Nick Rakocevic had 15 points and nine rebounds, Shaqquan Aaron had 13 points and Jonah Mathews added 11 for the Trojans (12-8, 5-2), who have won all five conference home games this season.
Romello White led a balanced Arizona State scoring attack with 11 points, and Zylan Cheatham, Remy Martin and Kimani Lawrence had 10 apiece for the Sun Devils (14-6, 5-3), who had a three-game winning streak broken while failing in their attempt to sweep the road trip to the Los Angeles league schools for the first time since 1986-87.
Rakocevic and Derryck Thornton had four points apiece and J'Raan Brooks hit a 3-pointer during a 13-0 USC run for a 52-44 lead with 13 minutes remaining, but ASU regained the lead when Martin scored eight straight points, including two 3-pointers, to make it 65-62 with 3:38 left.
Rakocevic scored four straight points to put USC back in front, but he fouled out with 1:35 remaining while attempting to draw a charging foul on Luguentz Dort, who made both free throws to give Arizona a 67-66 lead.
Cheatham missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 25 seconds before Boatwright's go-ahead three. Martin missed a forced three and Mathews missed the front end of a 1-one-1 with 0.8 seconds remaining, and Dort's 40-footer was off.
Arizona State held a 49-35 rebounding advantage but shot a season-low 30.6 percent from the field. Cheatham had 14 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season. The Sun Devils led the Pac-12 with a plus-7.2 rebounding margin coming in.
Last year, Boatwright missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer after Arizona State scored nine straight points for an 80-78 victory in Tempe.
--Field Level Media