Feb. 24, 2012

Complete Game Notes

USC (6-22, 1-14) will play at Arizona State (8-20, 4-12) at the Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Ariz. on Feb. 25 at 6:00 p.m. MT. The game is being televised on Prime Ticket with Paul Sunderland and Brandon Granville calling the action and Amy Bender providing sideline commentary. USC has lost six consecutive games and is 1-15 in its last 16 games.

BREAKING DOWN THE SUN DEVILS -- Arizona State is coming off a 66-57 home loss to UCLA on Feb. 23, its fourth consecutive loss. Juniors Trent Lockett (13.1 ppg) and Carrick Felix (10.1 ppg) lead the Sun Devils in scoring. The Sun Devils are 3-4 in Pac-12 home games. USC lost at home to the Sun Devils 62-53 on Jan. 5, but leads the all-time series, 51-34.

TROJANS LOSE AT ARIZONA AFTER A FAST START -- Arizona outscored USC by 12 points in the second half to pull away for a 70-54 victory at the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. on Feb. 23. USC actually had a 24-16 lead with 7:58 left to go in the first half, but missed its last nine shots before the break allowing Arizona to go on a 12-0 run to take a 28-24 lead at halftime. The Wildcats then outscored USC 17-7 to start the second half and led by at least eight points the rest of the way. Byron Wesley led USC with a season-best 18 points and added seven rebounds. Maurice Jones had 10 points and matched career highs in assists (7) and rebounds (6). Garrett Jackson helped USC get off to the good start by scoring all 10 of his points in the first half. Arizona's Kyle Fogg had a double-double with 16 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.

WASHINGTON ON DECK -- USC will host Washington (19-8, 12-3) on March 1 at 7:30 p.m. The Huskies will play at Washington State on Feb. 25 before visiting Los Angeles. USC lost by a season-high 28 points at Washington 69-41 on Feb. 4 while shooting a season-low 28.8 percent. USC leads the all-time series against Washington, 68-67.

TROJANS STINGY WITH TURNOVERS - As a young team playing with no senior scholarship players and just three scholarship players who had played in the USC system before, USC has committed just 11.0 turnovers per game, 16th-best in the country. USC has had 9 or less turnovers in 10 of the last 13 games and has had 12 or less turnovers 20 times. USC is tops in the Pac-12 with a +4.4 turnover margin. USC has committed 123 less turnovers than its opponents.

WESLEY AMONG FRESHMAN LEADERS - USC wing Byron Wesley ranks among the top eight Pac-12 freshmen in six different category averages: scoring (8.7, 7th), rebounds (4.9, 4th), defensive rebounds (4.0, 2nd), assists (1.8, 7th), steals (0.8, 6th) and minutes (34.3, 1st).

MOJO, MAN OF STEAL - Sophomore guard Maurice Jones has 118 career steals, already 10th on the Trojans' all-time steals list. Jones' 69 steals last season set a USC freshman record and his 49 so far this season already rank sixth all-time by a Trojan sophomore. Jones currently ranks fourth among active Pac-12 players in career steals, the only sophomore in the top 10.

MIGHTY MO - USC's Maurice Jones (38.1) is one of eight players in the country averaging 38.0 or more minutes per game. Also, Jones' 13.6 points per game average ranks eighth in the conference, but in terms of percentage of a teams' scoring, he ranks first in the conference at 25.4 percent. Brock Motum of Washington State is second at 25.2 percent of his team's scoring and Jared Cunningham is third at 23.3 percent of Oregon State's scoring.

JACKSON MEANS ACTION - Since being inserted into the starting lineup 10 games ago, sophomore Garrett Jackson has scored 11.1 points per game or 111 total points. That total is 40 more points than he had scored in USC's first 18 games while coming off the bench. In the 10 starts he ranks only behind Maurice Jones (12.4) and Byron Wesley (12.4) for points per game by a Trojan. Jackson also has 11 blocks and 10 steals in his starts.