LOS ANGELES (AP) — Evan Mobley had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Southern California pulled away over the final 10 minutes to beat Oregon State 75-62 on Thursday for its eighth win in nine games.
Mobley had five dunks on his way to the freshman’s seventh double-double of the season.
Isaiah White and Noah Baumann added 11 points each and Ethan Anderson had 10 points for the Trojans (13-3, 7-2 Pac-12). They avenged a two-point loss to the Beavers on Jan. 19 that snapped USC's six-game winning streak.
“We didn’t play a perfect game, but we grinded out a home win,” USC coach Andy Enfield said. “They played a physical and energetic basketball game for 40 minutes.”
Ethan Thompson had 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and Jarod Lucas added 18 points for the Beavers (8-6, 4-4).
"We started to score at a better clip to start the second half, and then I thought we stopped making plays for each other,” Beavers coach Wayne Tinkle said in a post-game radio interview.
The teams traded baskets early in the second half after neither led by more than five points in the first 20 minutes.
“They’re a really good team this year and they’re not easy to score on,” Anderson said.
It wasn't until the Trojans put together their biggest spurt of the game that they got any breathing room. They outscored the Beavers 18-6 to take a 65-49 lead, their largest of the game. Chevez Goodwin scored six points during the spurt. He finished with 10 rebounds, helping the Trojans dominate the boards, 48-30.
“Our shooting in the first half wasn’t the best. In the second, we were able to get our rhythm and up our pace,” Anderson said. “We’re hoping to put together a complete game here soon.”
Baumann and Goodwin's efforts led USC's reserves, who outscored the Beavers' bench 31-10.
“We’ve been telling ourselves we have to give these guys a lift somehow, some way,” Baumann said.
Oregon State cut its deficit to 65-58 on three consecutive 3-pointers by Thompson, Lucas and Julien Franklin. But that proved to be the Beavers' last big run as they never got closer than seven points in the closing minutes.
"We needed somebody else to step up on the perimeter for us,” Tinkle said. "We needed another guy or two to step up and make a couple of shots, which would have helped soften things up and then maybe get us some more going to the rim.”
BIG PICTURE
Oregon State: Despite the end of their three-game winning streak, the Beavers have been surging lately. After a tough matchup at first-place UCLA, they are set to play teams with losing records in four of their next six games.
USC: The Trojans played their 11th game in 31 days and ninth in January, the most they've played in a month since 10 games in December 2018. They'll have to play at Stanford next week instead of hosting the Cardinal in a make-up game from Jan. 21.
UP NEXT
Oregon State: Visits No. 23 UCLA on Saturday.
USC: Was scheduled to host Oregon on Saturday, but the game has been postponed because of COVID-19 issues with the Ducks.
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