3 keys to visiting USC’s 62-49 win over cold-shooting Utah

Visiting USC moved into a tie for second place in the Pac-12 standings with a 62-49 win over Utah on Saturday at the Huntsman Center to ruin the Utes’ Senior Night.

The cold-shooting Utes suffered their fourth-straight loss and are now 17-13 overall, 10-9 in the Pac-12. 

USC improved to 21-8 and 13-5 and are tied with Arizona for second place with two games remaining in conference play.

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Here are 3 keys to USC’s 62-49 win over Utah:

• The Utes played reasonably well on defense, but could never get much going offensively and shot 32% from the field. Utah was a frosty 5 of 20 from 3-point range.

The Trojans shot 42% from the field.

• Guards Boogie Ellis and Drew Peterson combined for 30 points on 11 of 25 shooting for the Trojans, who were outrebounded 42-36 but otherwise dominated every other statistical category.

• USC led by as many as 10 points in the first half before taking a 34-28 lead at the break. The reason for the advantage was 3-point shooting, as USC went 8 of 15 from deep in the first 20 minutes, compared to 2 of 11 for the Utes.