By Josh Green
Greetings and welcome inside Wells Fargo Arena for Pac-10 basketball between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the University of Southern California Trojans. ASU has struggled in Pac-10 play, losing six of its first seven games and is currently in last place in the conference for the first time since Herb Sendek’s first season in Tempe. USC is 11-9 overall, 3-4 in the Pac-10, having lost three of four. ASU has won all four games against USC at Wells Fargo Arena under Herb Sendek.
-Jeff Van Gundy of ESPN is here. He will be calling the Suns-Celtics game tomorrow at US Airways Center
-Most of the fans in attendance are wearing black. There’s supposed to be a light show at halftime.
Here are today’s starting lineups
USC: Alex Stepheson, Nikola Vucevic, Jio Fontan, Maurice Jones, Marcus Simmons
ASU:Trent Lockett, Kyle Cain, Ty Abbott, Jamelle McMillan, Rihards Kuksiks
First half
15:20- First media timeout of the half, and ASU has a 9-4 lead. The Sun Devils are two-of-five from the field, with both shots coming from beyond the arc. Ty Abbott has five points to lead ASU, while Nikola Vucevic has all four USC points. The Trojans have already committed four turnovers.
12:47- ASU leads 15-8. Vucevic has all eight points for USC, so Herb Sendek responds by putting in the 7’2 Jordan Bachynski. The Trojans are called for a travel and have another shot blocked on the ensuing two possessions.
11:47- Crowd on its feet as Kevin O’Neil calls a timeout with USC trailing 19-8. ASU is on a 7-0 run over the last 2:13. This is the second 7-0 run of the game for the Sun Devils.
10:29- Official timeout on the floor, and ASU leads 21-13. Nikola Vucevic is single-handidly keeping USC in the game, as he has 11 of the Trojans’ 13 points.
7:48- The Trojans have used a 7-2 run to cut ASU’s lead to three. USC is shooting 56.3%, while ASU is shooting 54%.
3:49- Final media timeout of the half, and ASU holds a 28-23 lead.
0:00- End of the first half, ASU leads USC 31-29.
USC holds a 18-11 edge in rebounding. The Trojans also turned the ball over 11 times in the first half. Ty Abbott has 11 points for ASU, and Rihards Kuksiks has 9.
Second Half
15:50- First timeout of the second half, and ASU has a 38-35 lead. The Trojans are pounding the ball inside to Vucevic, who now has 15 points on 7-0f-11 shooting. Ty Abbott has scored five of the first seven points in the half for the Sun Devils.
13:47- Kevin O’Neil calls timeout after Ty Abbott drills a three to give ASU a 43-39 lead. Nikola Vucevic has eight points in the half for USC, 19 in the game. Ruslan Pateev is now in the game to play defense after Jordan Bachynski picked up his third foul.
11:54- USC ties the game at 43 on a Maurice Jones layup. ASU is 8-of-17 from the free throw line.
10:46- Official timeout on the floor, with USC leading 46-45. Jones is the second Trojan in double-figures, as he’s scored the last five points.
7:36- We’ve reached the under-8 timeout, and USC leads 51-45, its biggest lead of the game. The Sun Devils will only have themselves to blame if they lose a close one, because they are 8-of-19 from the free throw line. They have also only managed two points over the last six minutes.
5:36- Jordan Bachynsku makes a couple of free throws to end an ASU drought of over four minutes. Rihards Kuksiks follows up with a three to put the crowd on its feet, but Garrett Jackson responds with a bucket of his own to give USC a 55-50 lead.
3:34- Final media timeout of the half. Back-to-back three’s by Kuksiks puts ASU right back in the game. USC up 55-53.
1:24- USC leads 58-56. Kuksiks has scored the last nine points for ASU, all on three’s.
0:49- Kuksiks ties the game at 58 with a pair of free throws, but Kyle Cain is called for a push-off on the other end, and Vucevic makes both free throws to give USC a 60-58 lead.
0:17- USC leads 62-61 after a Trent Lockett three. It will be Trojan ball out of the timeout.
0:16- Garrett Jackson makes one of two free throws. ASU will have a chance to tie or win the game.
0:03- Abbott misses a three, but the ball goes out of bounds to ASU. Refs determining how much time to put on the clock.
0:00- Abbott misses a three at the buzzer, and USC holds on to win, 63-61. ASU falls to 9-11, 1-7 in Pac-10 play. Sun Devils will host UCLA on Saturday.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 5:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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