Southern California edges No. 7 Arizona 103-101 in 4 OTs

With another chance in double overtime, USC lost the ball at midcourt on its final possession.

The USC Trojans (13-3, 2-1) will host the No. 7/No. 6 Arizona Wildcats (13-2, 1-1) at the Galen Center on January 9 at 4:00 p.m. The game will air on the Pac-12 Network, Pac-12 Los Angeles and Pac-12 Arizona with Kevin Calabro and Don MacLean calling the action. It’s obviously a big win.

“Every possession matters, every play matters”, he said.

However, the Sun Devils missed their final four shots and USC made three transition baskets to build a 71-63 lead with 29 seconds left. He made both foul shots.

Arizona’s Gabe York dribbled around as the clock wound down before Jordan McLaughlin knocked the ball away and the Wildcats recovered only to see Kadeem Allen’s 3-point attempt fall short at the buzzer, ending an exhausting 60 minutes of action. Southern California won it in a fourth overtime 103-101.

Coach Sean Miller knew Arizona didn’t have its act together on defense. The sophomore guard led ASU with 21 points and helped ASU storm back towards the end of the second half.

“I didn’t think he’d play tonight”, USC coach Andy Enfield said. “In many ways, that was the difference between a win and loss”.

USC makes 7.0 steals per game. Arizona’s previous longest was three OTs in 2010-11.

USC’s guards led the way. Jacobs scored a team-high 15 points against Arizona State despite playing with a sprained ankle.

Jaylen Brown had 20 points and seven rebounds and Jordan Mathews had 16 points, including four 3-pointers, for California.

Baylor 72, TCU 55: Freshman Beatrice Monpremier scored 18 points, and the No 6 Lady Bears (16-1, 3-1 Big 12) overcame a slow start to beat TCU. The Volunteers missed eight of their last nine shots from the field. Allen’s layup forced overtime after USC briefly regained the lead on a layup by Jovanovic. Stewart, who had been shooting worse than all of USC’s leading contributors this season did manage to stay hot throughout, hitting 9 of 13 and finishing with 27 points, including the winning free throws.

Isaiah Briscoe added 12 points for the Wildcats (12-3), who rebounded from an embarrassing 85-67 loss to LSU on Tuesday. To close the second overtime, with the score knotted at 86-86, Jacobs had his pass stolen in the corner and time expired. USC has lost six-straight to UCLA, including three times last season, and trails 104-138 in the all-time series, which reflects one USC victory in 2008 vacated due to NCAA penalty. The last time they played, USC came out on top, but the win was not enough to overtake Arizona State in their recent head-to-head series.

“In many ways this trip will have great meaning for our future”, Miller said. “You have two outstanding teams and two outstanding home courts”. The Arizona State Sun Devils rank a lowly 201st in blocking with just 3.2 per game.

After giving up 64.3 percent shooting in the first half, UA held the Trojans to just 31.0 percent shooting in the second half and a collective 31.8 percent over the four overtime periods.

NOTES: Arizona C Kaleb Tarczewski, in his third game back from a foot injury that kept him out for eight games, returned to the starting lineup. And he did coming off the bench. Tarczewski made his 113th career start, ninth most in school history….