USC Basketball can't be stopped, extends winning streak to new heights
By Evan Desai
USC Basketball strung together a seventh straight win on Friday night, beating Washington comfortably by a score of 80-67. Boogie Ellis couldn't be contained, as he scored 27 points on 10 of 19 shooting (four of eight from deep). Ellis had seven rebounds and three steals too, finding all kinds of ways to secure the W for the Trojans.
After dropping their opening game to Florida Gulf Coast by a score of 74-61 at home, SC has been on a mission to prove that it was just a fluke. They haven't quite done that just yet; as they still have three losses on the season, but their winning streak puts them at 11 wins.
Three of those wins on the seven game winning streak were Pac-12 games, and one of the out-of-conference games was against a ranked team. They're currently on a road trip to play the Washington schools this weekend. If they can finish it with a sweep after a win against Washington State on Sunday, this team will be nothing to sneeze at.
They still may not be considered Pac-12 contenders (and it might depend on how they look in a potential win against Wazzu on Sunday), but they absolutely would have a chance to contend for the Pac-12 if they could add five-star center Vince Iwuchukwu to a then already 4-0 in-conference team.
Especially considering that three of the road conference games USC Basketball will be playing this season will have been done by then.
And USC Basketball most certainly has a real shot to beat Washington State, who is just 5-9 on the season at this point. The Cougars are just awful on offense--only scoring 68.7 points per game. That's tied for an abysmal 257th in the nation. They are the opposite to USC in that they have lost all three of their conference games, while SC has won all three of their conference games.
Again, SC will enter that game on a seven-game win streak, while the Cougs will enter the game on a three game losing streak. They're 0-2 against ranked opponents, and 1-5 in their last six games. They did play better in their last game, however, losing by just one point to No. 11 UCLA in the same arena USC will be traveling to in Pullman, Washington on Sunday.