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Wildcats, Trojans prepare to battle for first place in Pac

LOS ANGELES - After weathering the storm and pulling out a big victory on the road at Pauley Pavilion 76-61 last night over No. 25 UCLA, the Wildcats were feeling pretty good about themselves.

If they keep perched on a high pedestal, though, the USC Trojans will be there to knock them back to the ground.

"We've got a huge one on Saturday," UA head coach Lute Olson said. "(U)SC is playing as well as anyone in the conference. They have as good a shot to win this conference as anybody and I think our guys are aware of that."

No. 2 Arizona (16-2 overall, 5-0 in Pacific 10 Conference) and USC (11-5, 4-0) will square off tomorrow night in the Los Angeles Sports Arena at 8:30 Tucson time.

"This helped our confidence a lot," junior center Loren Woods said of the victory over UCLA. "Now we have to go to USC and they are undefeated also, so this helped a lot."

While Arizona was able to sit back and enjoy a win in the final three minutes of its victory last night, USC had its hands full with Arizona State, finally defeating the Sun Devils in overtime, 95-92.

The ability for Arizona to keep its legs at the end of the game and not have to fight for the win could play a major part in tomorrow night's contest. Anything can happen, though, when staying undefeated is on the line.

"We just think of ourselves as underdogs," freshman guard Gilbert Arenas said of keeping the intensity high for the Trojans. "If you think of yourselves as underdogs, you play with a lot of emotions. If we keep playing like that, we can go all the way."

Led by sophomore forward Sam Clancy, USC has a dominant starting five who are all averaging double digits in points. Entering last nightĮs contest with ASU, Clancy was both the leading scorer and rebounder on the team with 17.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

He added 12 points and six boards in only 26 minutes last night, but sophomore forward David Bluthenthal pulled down a Pac-10 season-high 28 rebounds and added 18 points, enabling the Trojans to slip by the Sun Devils in 45 minutes.

Sophomore guards Jeff Trepagnier (16 points, eight rebounds over ASU) and Brandon Glanville (22 points, 11 assists) along with junior center Brian Scalabrine (26 points, 4 rebounds) round out the top-heavy starting lineup for the Trojans, who like the Wildcats, can play about seven or eight deep each night.

"(U)SC plays similarly to how we play," Olson said. "They don't care who gets the points, or who gets the credit, they play very well together. But they are in the same situation we are, they can't get anyone in foul trouble or hurt either because of their lack of depth."