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USC foward garners Pac-10 lead and award

The USC Trojans had quite a week.

The team took two games from the Arizona schools, continued its undefeated run in the Pac-10 and extended its winning streak to seven games.

When a team plays that well, there is usually one player who stands out above the rest. For the Trojans, that player was sophomore forward David Bluthenthal, who was named the Pac-10 player of the week.

Bluthenthal averaged 22 points and 17.5 rebounds in the Trojans two victories at the Los Angeles Sports Arena this weekend. He pulled down a career-high 28 rebounds on Thursday night against Arizona State and followed that performance with a career-high 26 points against Arizona.

The 28 rebounds tied Bluthenthal with former Trojan Cliff Robinson for the third most rebounds in a conference game. Robinson grabbed his 28 boards in 1978.

Adding to Bluthenthal's impressive statistics for the weekend was his shooting - 14-of-23 (.609) from the field and 14-of-17 (.824) from the free-throw line.

Bluthenthal is the second USC player to win the award this season (Brian Scalabrine on Dec. 20) and the 19th Trojan overall to win the award.

Following a less than impressive performance against Arizona, the UCLA Bruins came out against Arizona State with inspired play from sophomore forward Matt Barnes, who scored 17 points off the bench.

The Bruins were able to slip by the Sun Devils 83-77 with a late second half surge from Barnes and sophomore forward Jerome Moiso, who has averaged 21 points and 10.7 rebounds over the last three games. Freshman sharp-shooter Jason Kapono also tied a career-high in points with 24.

The Bruins also blocked 11 shots against ASU, the most since they swatted 12 against Maryland in the 1995 Wooden Classic.

The Washington State Cougars have not had much basketball success in the past.

In fact, it was so bad that when freshman guard David Adams scored a career-high 20 points in the Cougars 77-73 loss to Oregon State, it was the first time a WSU player has reached the 20-point plateau since Isaac Fontaine had 21 against ASU on Feb. 4, 1994.

Fontaine also added a 33-point game against Michigan State that year.

One should wonder just how much time Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery spends working on free throws each day in practice?

However long the Cardinal do spend shooting from the stripe, it paid off against Oregon and Cal this weekend.

The Cardinal hit 27 straight free throws - 21 in a row in the second half - against Oregon and six in a row before missing one in the first half against Cal.

For the two games, the Cardinal were 56-of-67 (.836) from the line.