Isaiah White, Evan Mobley lead USC past Arizona
TUCSON, Ariz. — Isaiah White scored 22 points, freshman standout Evan Mobley had a double-double and USC picked up a rare win at Arizona, closing out the Wildcats 87-73 on Thursday night.
Mobley had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Trojans (7-2, 2-1 Pac-12 Conference), who had lost 10 straight at McHalen Arena, where Arizona is now 114-13 in the last 127 games. Their last win was in 2008 Drew Peterson had seven points, eight rebounds and 10 assists.
Freshman Azuolas Tubelis, whose previous high was 13 points against Eastern Washington, scored 31 points with eight rebounds for the Wildcats (9-2, 3-2), who had their four-game winning streak end. Bennedict Mathurin added 11 points and Terrell Brown Jr. 10.
White and Mobley combined to go 14 of 23 from the field and both were 5 of 6 from the line. White hit 3 of 5 3-pointers.
They were huge in the second half, combing for 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting when the Trojans shot 75% (21 of 28), including 4 of 6 behind the arc. They also outrebounded Arizona, which pulled down more than 50 boards its previous two games, 17-8.
The Wildcats had an 8-0 run for a nine-point lead early in the first half but USC erased that with a 10-0 burst and managed a 35-34 lead at the break.
The teams swapped the lead 11 times through the first seven minutes of the second half, the last when White made a layup at the 12:57 mark to make it 54Fre-53. Noah Baumann and Isaiah Mobley followed up with 3-pointers for an 8-0 run.
Mobley and White had back-to-back dunks to push the lead to 10 with nine minutes left. Arizona scored six straight but the Trojans never faltered, even when Evan Mobley fouled out with 3:38 to play and Ira Lee converted the three-point play to cut the lead to six. The Wildcats made just one of their last eight shots.
USC goes to Arizona State on Saturday when UCLA visits Arizona.
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