Washington State Cougars (10-5) vs. USC Trojans (8-7)
January 10, 2024 10:30 pm EDT
The Line: USC Trojans -6 ; Over/Under: 148.5
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The Washington State Cougars and the USC Trojans meet Wednesday in college basketball action from Galen Center. Washington State is coming off a loss to Oregon which dropped the Cougars to 10-5 overall. As for USC, they’re sitting at 8-7 after a win versus Stanford over the weekend. Let’s get into our Washington State vs. USC prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Washington State Cougars
The Cougars got off to a good start over their first nine games with an 8-1 record. The one loss came to Mississippi State. Since then it’s been a shaky 2-4 run however, featuring losses to Santa Clara, Utah, Colorado and Oregon. The wins otherwise were versus Boise State and Oregon State.
Matched up against Oregon on Saturday, the Cougars went into the second half down 46-41. Washington State managed to keep pace from there with 43 points but still lost 89-84. Leading the team in the defeat was Myles Rice with his 22 points, seven assists, one steal and four turnovers.
USC Trojans
Over on the USC side, they managed to win five of their first seven games with losses to UC Irvine and Oklahoma otherwise. The Trojans have gone 3-5 in the last eight outings though, losing to Gonzaga, Long Beach State, Auburn, Oregon and Oregon State with wins over Alabama State, California and Stanford.
In the Stanford game over the weekend, the Trojans posted a 39-35 edge in the first half, then kept it up after the break on a 54-44 run for a 93-79 victory. Isaiah Collier led the way on 26 points with four assists, while Boogie Ellis put up 22 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals.
ANDREW’S FREE WASHINGTON STATE VS USC PREDICTION
I’ll stick with USC. The Trojans are playing better over their last couple of games and didn’t have too many issues with Stanford on Saturday. In that one USC shot a nice 56 percent from 3-point range (14-of-25) with 34 rebounds and just six turnovers. The Trojans have hit 70 or more points in 12 straight games.
As for Washington State, they’ve been below 68 points in five of their last six outings. To be fair however, the Cougars have taken on some tricky teams in that span. Still, if Washington State doesn’t get their offense going early on Wednesday I don’t think they’ll keep a cover pace on the Trojans.
