No. 15 Southern California erased a 12-point, first-half deficit en route to a 78-56 rout of Arizona State on Monday night in Los Angeles.
The Trojans (17-2, 7-2 Pac-12) got a balanced scoring effort, led by Drew Peterson’s 16 points. Isaiah Mobley, Chevez Goodwin and Max Agbonkpolo each had 12 points, and Peterson and Goodwin led the Trojans with eight rebounds apiece.
The Trojans are off to their best 18-game start since the 1970-71 team began 17-1 on its way to a 24-2 record.
Marreon Jackson led Arizona State (6-11, 2-5 Pac-12) with 21 points, including a 5-of-12 performance from 3-point range.
Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley and guard Jay Heath were suspended from the game by the Pac-12 because of their confrontation with a referee after the team’s Saturday loss at Stanford.
The Sun Devils were led by assistant coaches Jermaine Kimbrough and Joel Justus.
Kimani Lawrence also was not available because of a non-COVID-19 illness, leaving the Sun Devils with seven scholarship players.
Arizona State held a 22-10 lead with 6:19 left in the first half, but the Sun Devils were outscored 21-2 the rest of the way until halftime.
USC missed 11 straight shots from the field before converting seven straight. Reese Dixon-Waters and Mobley each made two 3-pointers in that stretch for USC.
Arizona State missed 9 of 10 shots overlapping with USC’s hot streak.
Another 3-pointer by Kobe Johnson with five seconds left gave the Trojans a 31-24 halftime lead.
The Trojans took control of the game with a 14-2 run that opened a 55-37 lead with 9:03 left.
USC limited Arizona State to 34.4 percent field-goal shooting, including an 8-of-30 performance from 3-point range.
The Trojans outrebounded the Sun Devils 49-24, including 34 defensive rebounds that fueled USC’s running game. The Trojans outscored Arizona State 12-0 in fastbreak points.
The Trojans took advantage of their depth with their bench outscoring Arizona State’s reserves 36-6.
Agbonkpolo grabbed six rebounds off the USC bench. Dixon-Waters, a fellow reserve, had eight points.
–Field Level Media
