OK, so we won but from what I have been reading and from what I saw over at The FanHouse I am not comfortable with this win. Make no mistake it would appear that ASU has our number as SC had some ups and downs in this game and they will were able to keep up with us.
I am not real happy about that call on Pendergraph, as it looked a little iffy. There was some contact on DJ but I'm not sure it was much more than the contact that occurred in the Stanford ucla game. Once again the officials made a questionable call when they should have just let the game play out. I am confident that SC would have won in either regulation or in OT but I would have preferred that they teams play through.
That aside, SC dug deep to win this game. Defensive issues and 12 first half turnovers didn't help but in the end SC found a way to keep it close and find a way to win.
Arizona State took a 43-38 lead when Jamelle McMillan had a steal and lay-up, but a pull-up jumper by Mayo brought the Trojans back to within three points.
Despite some early defensive issues and a spate of 12 first-half turnovers, USC held a 34-32 halftime lead.
The Trojans trailed by as many as eight points early after Kuksiks and Harden made two three-pointers apiece for the Sun Devils, who rattled off six consecutive points to take a 17-9 lead.
USC responded with a 10-0 run and the lead went back and forth for the remainder of the first half. The Trojans had a four-point lead and the ball in the final seconds before Mayo had the ball stolen and freshman Ty Abbott went in for a lay-up to set the halftime score.
Personally, I would have liked to see a more dominant win but you take it as it comes.
Now all that aside SC did keep ASU from scoring a filed goal in the last 9-plus minutes of the game. that is on SC's defense so give credit where credit is due. SC seemed to want it more and holding Harden to only 16 points was exactly what SC needed to do. a good win though it wasn't as comfortable as I would have liked. Moving on...
I am not going to get all worked up over ucla. A win would be great! If not, oh well but I think we have an excellent shot at giving them a great game and I do think we can win. If SC plays the way they have in the 2 previous meetings there is a good chance we can get a win. If we can stop them defensively and if we can score the points to put them away we can walk away with a win. From what I have read elsewhere they have a little bravado going across town. Anything can happen so lets just say I am cautiously optimistic but I will wait and see what happens.