The USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins meet Friday in Pac-12 Tournament college basketball action from T-Mobile Arena. USC is currently 26-6 on the season. The Trojans are coming off a tournament win over Washington. As for UCLA, they’re sitting at 24-6 this year and beat Washington State in their Thursday tournament matchup. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
USC went into February at 18-3, then cruised through the month on a nice 7-1 run to move to 25-4 overall. The Trojans ran into some trouble as March began, losing consecutive games to Arizona and UCLA. They were able to bounce back with a Thursday win over Washington, though.
In the Thursday tournament game against Washington, USC trailed 36-39 at the break. The Trojans posted a 29-22 run in the second half and took the comeback win 65-61. Leading the way was Boogie Ellis with 17 points and four rebounds.
Over on the UCLA side, they had a rough 1-3 stretch in February but outside of that there haven’t been too many bumps along the way. The Bruins are currently riding a four-game winning streak over Oregon State, Washington, USC and Washington State.
Matched up against Washington State in the tournament on Thursday, the Bruins hit a nice 40-28 lead in the first half. UCLA managed another 35 points after the break and got the win 75-65. Jaime Jaquez posted a double-double in the victory with 23 points and 11 boards.
PICK: I’m leaning toward UCLA in this one. The Bruins have looked great over this four-game win streak. They’ve hit 75 or more points in each game, holding opponents to 68 points or fewer in each as well. UCLA shot 47.5 percent from the floor with 40 rebounds on Thursday, and if they can keep that up here the Bruins will be in good shape.
As for USC, they came into the month on a great run but haven’t looked so sharp over the last three games. The Trojans beat UCLA at home 67-64 the first time these teams met up back on February 12. The road rematch was a different story, though: a 75-68 loss on March 5. This one’s probably going to be quite close, however I still like UCLA a little better cover-wise.