Washington St. @ Southern California preview
Galen Center
Last Meeting ( Dec 4, 2021 ) Southern California 63, Washington St. 61
No. 17 USC has won three consecutive games, each with a different leading scorer.
And their best point producer this season, Isaiah Mobley, isn't among those players as he missed two of the games with concussion-like symptoms after he suffered a broken nose during a Feb. 5 game at Arizona.
So what's a defense to do against the Trojans?
That will be the question for Washington State when the teams meet Sunday in Los Angeles.
Chevez Goodwin scored a season-high 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds as the Trojans defeated Washington 79-69 in a Pacific-12 Conference game Thursday.
Drew Peterson, the conference's reigning Player of the Week, added 14 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Trojans (22-4, 11-4 Pac-12) and Mobley, wearing a face mask for protection, finished with 12 points and a game-high eight assists.
"It just shows that we're improving as a team," Goodwin said.
"But we (have) still got to grow and keep going, but it was definitely a statement just showing that we weren't like all emotion playing against UCLA (a 67-64 victory last Saturday against their rivals in which Mobley didn't play). It was an actual really good win.
"We're still a good team, we're still rolling, and we just got to carry this momentum into Sunday."
Mobley seemed to take awhile to get used to the mask after apparently forgetting to bring it to practice Wednesday. He scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half to help hold off the Huskies.
"Everyone asked me if I could see. Yes, I could see," Mobley said, joking.
And he certainly liked what he saw from his teammates.
"We're a real team," Mobley said. "We're not just like, 'Since I average the most points, I'm the reason we win.' It's all of us."
That was apparent Thursday as the Trojans had assists on 28 of their 30 field goals against Washington's stingy zone defense.
"The game plan was to share the basketball because their zone is very good," USC coach Andy Enfield said. "Our guys did a great job ... unselfish play."
The Cougars (14-11, 7-7) are still looking for a big victory to boost their NCAA Tournament resume.
It would've seemed they had a shot against No. 13 UCLA on Thursday, with the Bruins benching standout point guard Tyger Campbell because of a violation of team rules.
But Washington State shot a season-low 28.3 percent (15 of 53) from the field in suffering a 76-56 defeat.
Tyrell Roberts led WSU with 14 points, making four 3-pointers. Noah Williams and Andrej Jakimovski scored 11 each.
"We got some good looks, but you have to make them. We are a little mental right now," Cougars coach Kyle Smith said. "Our bigs have to do a better job of putting pressure at the rim. We're going to have to get something done inside."
USC and WSU met Dec. 4 in Pullman, Wash., with Goodwin making a layup and a free throw with 16 seconds left to give the Trojans a 63-61 victory.
--Field Level Media