No. 8 Arizona Basketball snaps USC’s 14-game home winning streak

LOS ANGELES, CA – Looking to rebound following their loss to ASU, No. 8 Arizona Basketball (25-5, 14-5) scored the big, 87-81 win over USC (21-9, 13-6). 

Well, last week was an ugly one for Arizona Basketball, as the Wildcats shockingly lost to rival Arizona State on a buzzer-beater. And after a few days off, Arizona was back in action with an even bigger challenge.

Traveling to Los Angeles to take on USC, coming in, the Wildcats had a significant challenge on its hands in this one as the Trojans had been playing well, and had won 14-straight home games.

Luckily, the Wildcats were up to the challenge as they scored 87 points on 54.2 percent from the field including 9-18 (50.0) from three.

Arizona was led by Azuolas Tubelis who found his rhythm again by scoring 25 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Courtney Ramey added with 16 points and four assists on 6-11 shooting, meanwhile, Kylan Boswell added with 14 points off the bench.

Despite USC hanging tough, No. 8 Arizona Basketball was able to close out the game and come away with a huge win.

Needing the energy from the tip, it was clear Arizona was up to the challenge as the Wildcats opened the game outscoring USC 19-12 after the first nine-plus minutes of play.

USC would start to battle as they continued to find its offensive rhythm in the first half, but with each Trojan response, Arizona had an even bigger one as they outscored USC 17-11 over the final 6:39 of play in the first half to lead 43-31.

Hoping to continue its first-half momentum, USC would cut the lead to single digits early in the second half as they outscored Arizona 13-8 in the first 5:46 of play.

Arizona would respond again, this time answering with a 20-11 run to push their lead to 16 (its largest lead of the game), but the Wildcats couldn’t hang on its dominant lead as the offense became a bit stagnant and USC cut Arizona’s lead to single digits.

Luckily, Arizona held tough in the end, hanging on to beat USC by an 87-81 final!

With the win, the Wildcats fall to 25-5 (14-5) on the season and will resume basketball action on Saturday for a big challenge against No. 4 UCLA. Tip-off against the Bruins on Saturday is set for 8:00 PM MST!

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