Southern California @ Oregon St. preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 23, 2019 ) Oregon St. 67, Southern California 62

USC and host Oregon State will be trying to bounce back from losses in the front half of their Pac-12 weekend series when they play Saturday afternoon. The Trojans, who began the week in a tie for first place with Stanford, lost in double overtime, 79-70, at Oregon on Thursday night while the Beavers dropped their third straight game, falling to visiting UCLA, 62-58.

USC, which rallied from a 21-point second-half deficit to defeat Stanford, 82-78, last Saturday, trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half in Thursday's loss before going on a 17-2 run to take a 62-58 lead on a Jonah Mathews 3-pointer with 1:24 left. But the Ducks rallied to send the game into overtime where guards Payton Pritchard (24 points, seven assists) and Chris Duarte (30 points, 11 rebounds, eight steals) took charge, taking advantage of 18 Trojan turnovers in the process. "You've got to take care of the ball," USC coach Andy Enfield told the Los Angeles Times. "Some were ill-timed passes that went to the other guys. We just have to make the right basketball play. Give them credit, they're a good defensive team." Oregon State meanwhile shot 36.6 percent in their loss to the Bruins, their worst mark in conference play, and watched as UCLA made its final nine free throws in the final two minutes to hold on for the win.

TIME: 5 p.m. ET. TV: Pac-12 Network

ABOUT USC (15-4, 4-2 Pac-12): Oneyka Okongwu continued his remarkable freshman campaign in the loss to the Ducks, finishing with 23 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks while playing 46 minutes. The 6-9 forward leads the team in both scoring (17.2) and rebounding (9.0) while also shooting 61.2 percent from the floor. Mathews is second in scoring (12.8) while 6-11 senior forward Nick Rakocevic also is averaging in double figures (11.0) while grabbing 8.5 rebounds per game.

ABOUT OREGON STATE (12-7, 2-5): The Beavers have dropped four of their last five with the lone win an impressive one, 82-65, over No. 21 Arizona on Jan. 12 at Gill Coliseum. Senior forward Tres Tinkle had 17 points against UCLA on just 4-of-14 shooting to go with eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks and needs to three points to pass Steve Johnson on the school's all-time scoring list. Tinkle leads the team in scoring (19.6), rebounds (7.0) and steals (1.9) while senior guard Ethan Thompson (15.9 points) is second in scoring while leading the team with 4.4 assists per game with 7-foot forward Kylor Kelley chipping in with 11.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per contest.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Kelley ranks second in the nation in blocked shots per game (3.95) behind only Osasumwen Osaghae (4.20) of Florida International.

2. Tinkle, who was 9-for-9 at the free throw line in the loss to UCLA, has made 33 consecutive foul shots, one off the school record set by Vince Fritz in 1967 and matched by Jared Cunningham in 2011.

3. Okongwu has six double-doubles which ranks fourth in the Pac-12.

PREDICTION: USC 74, Oregon State 68