USC pulls away from Huskies
Dwight Lewis scored 17 points, freshman O.J. Mayo had all but one of his 15 after halftime, and Southern California broke open a tight game midway through the second half to beat Washington 66-51 Saturday in Los Angeles for its first Pac-10 men’s basketball victory of the season.
Freshman Davon Jefferson and Taj Gibson added 10 points each for the Trojans (10-6, 1-3 Pac-10), who snapped a three-game losing streak – their longest since they dropped the final three games of the 2005-06 season.
Mayo, who entered as the Pac-10’s second-leading scorer with a 20.3-point average, shot just 4 of 13, but played well otherwise, getting four rebounds and five assists and doing a solid job on defense. He has scored in double figures in each of USC’s 16 games.
USC won decisively despite being outrebounded 42-28. The Trojans forced 20 turnovers, and the Huskies shot just 20 for 60 (33.3 percent).
Jon Brockman led Washington (9-7, 0-3) with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Quincy Pondexter added 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskies, who lost their third straight.
Washington led 43-42 when Angelo Johnson made a layup and then fed Gibson for a dunk to trigger a 14-0 run that put the Trojans ahead 56-43 with 5:31 left, and the Huskies didn’t threaten after that. Mayo scored five points and Jefferson added four during the spurt.
California 69, Oregon State 59: Ryan Anderson had 17 points and 17 rebounds to lead the Golden Bears (11-3, 2-2) to a win over the Beavers (6-10, 0-4) in Corvallis, Ore.
Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher added 11 points for California. The Bears are 11-1 against Oregon State in Corvallis under their coach Ben Braun.
Marcel Jones had 12 points and Seth Tarver 11 for Oregon State. The Beavers have dropped six in a row and shot just 32.9 percent from the field.
Anderson, a 6-foot-10 sophomore forward, entered the game as the conference-leading scorer and fifth-leading rebounder at 20.9 points and 9.1 rebounds a game.
Cal led by as many as 18 in the second half.
Oregon State has shot poorly in their four conference games and lost them all. They came into the game shooting 34.9 percent in Pac-10 play.
Arizona 85, Houston 71: Jerryd Bayless scored a career-high 33 and sank a school-record 18 free throws in his first game back from a sprained right knee to lead the Wildcats (11-5) to a win over the Cougars (11-3) in Houston.
The Wildcats lost three of the four games Bayless missed after injuring his knee in practice Dec. 28. The freshman point guard showed no ill effects, constantly driving past Houston defenders for layups or drawing fouls on the Cougars’ big men.
Bayless went 18 for 20 from the line, passing the previous record of 17 made free throws by Miles Simon in 1998. Bayless also had five rebounds and nine assists.
Zamal Nixon scored 24 points to lead Houston.