Top 25: Arizona State upsets No. 23 USC

The Trojans, meanwhile, are coming off a 74-67 loss against Arizona State on Friday.

Arizona led by as many as 19 in the first half and was up 16 at halftime. The Bruins and Aggies both finished 8-5 last season, so – objectively speaking – no, it’s not. It’s been five weeks since that game, so will Arizona’s most consistent player show that he has improved that aspect of his game? This is what we’ve done for the past couple of years, this is what we plan to do this year. At 15-9 (62.5%), Michigan State owns the second best ATS record of the teams playing on Sunday and is a 7-point home favorite versus the Hoosiers. “If we want more than that, if we want a real chance at this regular-season championship, we can’t do the things we just did in the second half”. Putting together a complete game, he said, has been a problem all season. The Pac-12 is the weirdest conference in college basketball, so expect plenty of zany stuff to still go down, but it seems safe to say the conference will wind up being taken in early March by the Wildcats or by or, which is also 9-4 heading into the week.

Arizona never trailed but had to weather a furious USC rally.

“Both teams also suffered from turnovers, seven for ASU and 11 for USC at half, but ASU made up for it with its scrappiness on the boards and with their ability to hold the Trojans to just 2-for-11 from the 3-point line”. Dayton got the rebound, and Steve McElvene made one of two free throws for the Flyers with 0.3 seconds to go.

“We pride ourselves on 10 (four-minute) wars, and I think they had gotten four wars in a row”, said Anderson, who had six rebounds to halt a streak of five straight double-doubles. “To win on the road, especially a place as tough as McKale Center, against a top 15 team in the country, you need to make those shots in the last 5 minutes”.

The Sun Devils’ first half defense set the tone for the rest of the night. Yes, the Trojans beat Arizona 103-101 in the teams’ first meeting. Tollefsen scored 11 in the run, capped by his tip-in that put Arizona up 43-24 with 1:39 left in the half. Parker Jackson-Cartwright played a key role with 16 points, four assists, and two rebounds.

Then the Trojans outscored the Wildcats by 10 points through the first 12 minutes of the second half, pulling within 64-58 after Bennie Boatwright and Jordan McLaughlin hit three-pointers in the middle of the half.

USC did not make another field goal until Boatwright’s 3-pointer with 33 seconds remaining made the score 84-75. Trojans lost at Arizona State for the eighth time in nine tries. The Arizona Wildcats earn fewer possessions with 71.2, but they score more points with 1.141. A win was a win, and a win over a talented USC team was even better, he indicated, but it wasn’t the kind of win that suggests a deep postseason run is ahead. Sitting two games out of first place, the Trojans are just 2-4 away from their home court in conference games this season.

USC hosts Colorado on Wednesday.

With the shot clock winding down and the crowd on its feet yelling in anticipation, Arizona State sophomore guard Tra Holder maneuvered to his right as he lifted up from the top of the three-point arc.