Southern California @ Arizona State preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 26, 2019 ) Arizona State 67, Southern California 69

Arizona State kept its Pac-12 title and NCAA Tournament hopes alive Thursday night with an impressive 84-66 victory over visiting UCLA. The Sun Devils will try to complete a sweep of the Los Angeles schools Saturday night when they host USC.

Arizona State, which entered the game with the Bruins ranked last in the Pac-12 in 3-point shooting hitting just 30 percent of its shots beyond the arc, connected on 14-of-24 treys (58.3 percent) in Thursday's win and shot 50 percent from the field while holding UCLA to just 37.9 percent shooting. "I thought it was an impressive performance on both ends of the floor," ASU coach Bobby Hurley told the Arizona Republic. "Just top to bottom, both ends of the floor. It was one of our more complete games." It was the fourth win in five games for the Sun Devils who moved into a tie for fifth place with Stanford, just 1 1/2 games behind conference co-leaders Colorado and Oregon. USC, which comes into Saturday's contest in fourth place, will try to rebound from a 85-80 loss at No. 23 Arizona on Thursday.

TIME: 10 p.m. ET. TV: Fox Sports 1

ABOUT USC (17-6, 6-4 Pac-12): The Trojans twice trailed by as many as 20 points in the second half at Tucson before closing to within three, 83-80, on a Jonah Mathews free throw with five seconds left before Nico Mannion finally sealed the victory for the Wildcats with a pair of free throws. "It's not fun when you play behind most of the game," Trojan coach Andy Enfield told the Los Angeles Times. "Give our guys credit. They battled. They played hard. They finally got some stops. ... (Arizona) didn't have a field goal in the last 8 1/2 minutes. But you've got to play 40 minutes." Freshman forward Onyeka Okongwu, who leads the team in scoring (17.0 points per game), rebounds (9.0) and blocks (3.0), finished with 23 points and eight rebounds in the loss while guard Daniel Utomi added 22 points and Nick Rakocevic finished with 18 points and seven rebounds.

ABOUT ARIZONA STATE (14-8, 5-4): Guard Alonzo Verge Jr. had 26 points off the bench while point guard Remy Martin had 15 points, guard Rob Edwards added 13 points and forward Kimani Lawrence finished with 11 points against UCLA with Verge, Lawrence and junior forward Khalid Thomas all going 3-for-3 behind the arc. "Are we this good?" Hurley asked. "That's very strong, but multiple guys are in a good rhythm right now and playing well on the offensive end. It's good to see." Martin leads the team in scoring (19.1), assists (4.0) and steals (1.7) while junior forward Romello White, who had 16 rebounds against the Bruins, leads the team in rebounds (9.3) and blocks (1.3) while also averaging 10.9 points per game.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Edwards is averaging 14.8 points over the past eight games while also connecting on 26-of-61 3-pointers (42.6 percent).

2. Mathews, who is second in scoring (12.6) and Rakocevic (11.3) who is third for USC, did not start at Arizona because of a violation of team rules. "We expect them to buy into what we're doing as a program," Enfield told tucson.com.

3. Arizona State is 10-1 against USC in the last 11 games played in Tempe and has won the last six in a row.

PREDICTION: USC 84, Arizona State 79