Southern California @ Arizona preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 13, 2019 ) Arizona 65, Southern California 78

USC and Arizona are among five teams bunched at the top of the Pac-12 standings with three losses heading into the second half of conference play. The Trojans, who are 5-2 in true road games this season, travel to Tucson on Thursday night to face the resurgent Wildcats.

No. 23 Arizona bounced back into the thick of the Pac-12 race with a road sweep of Washington and Washington State last weekend, its first two true road wins of the season. Six of the Wildcats' final 10 games are at home, and because of the conference's unbalanced schedule, Sean Miller's squad doesn't have to go to Colorado (17-5, 6-3) which begins the week in a tie for second place with USC a half-game behind Oregon (18-5, 7-3). "It's a good conference. Anbody can win on any given night," senior guard Dylan Smith told tucson.com. "I feel like definitely we are one of those teams who can make a push for the regular season and conference championship. We just have to keep our heads down and keep working." The Trojans, who play five of their final nine games at home, will be trying to bounce back from a 78-57 loss to visiting Colorado on Saturday.

TIME: 9 p.m. ET. TV: ESPN2.

ABOUT USC (17-5, 6-3 Pac-12): The Trojans, who were blown out at Washington, 72-40, on Jan. 5, suffered their second ugly loss of Pac-12 play against Colorado which used a 17-4 spurt to start the second half to build a 50-28 lead and never led by fewer than 18 points the rest of the way. "When we're bad, we're bad," said Trojans coach Andy Enfield. "When we lose, we sometimes lose by a large margin, and tonight we just didn't have it offensively. We can't score 57 points against Colorado and expect to beat them." Freshman forward Onyeka Okongwu, who leads the team in scoring (16.7 points per game) and rebounds (9.1), finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds against the Buffaloes while freshman forward Isaiah Mobley led the team with 12 points and senior guard Jonah Mathews, who is second on the team in scoring (12.9), added 11 points but was just 4-of-15 from the floor.

ABOUT ARIZONA (15-6, 5-3): The sweep of the Washington schools was the first Pac-12 road sweep in more than a year for the Wildcats who held the Cougars to 37 percent shooting, including 3-of-18 from 3-point range, in Saturday night's 66-49 victory in Pullman. Freshman forward Zeke Nnaji leads the team in both scoring (16.2) and rebounds (8.8) and had 10 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season while 6-9 senior forward Stone Gettings scored a team-high 19 points to go with 12 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Freshman point guard Nice Mannion (14.2 points, 5.7 assists) and freshman guard Josh Green (11.7) also are averaging in double figures.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Arizona is 10-1 at home this season with the lone setback to No. 2 Gonzaga, 84-80, on Dec. 14.

2. The Wildcats lead the Pac-12 in scoring (79.8), scoring margin (plus-14.52) and assists (16.1) while Okongwu is No. 1 in rebounding (9.1).

3. USC, which defeated the Wildcats, 80-57, at home and 78-65 in the Pac-12 Tournament last season, has lost nine consecutive games in Tucson.

PREDICTION: Arizona 79, USC 74