Southern California will try to close out a successful road swing on Wednesday in Iowa City, when the Trojans face an Iowa team seeking its third straight win.
The Hawkeyes (14-5, 4-4 Big Ten Conference) recovered from a three-game losing streak by prevailing 74-57 at Indiana on Jan. 17, then holding off Rutgers down the stretch in a 68-62 decision on Jan. 20.
With an eight-day layoff since beating the Scarlet Knights and improving to .500 in the Big Ten, Iowa aims to capitalize on the “mental break of having to get ready for games” coach Ben McCollum said.
“OK, this is the stretch run. You’ve got (12) guaranteed games,” McCollum said on Tuesday. “We’ve just got to make sure we use some of the stuff we did throughout that break and become a little better for it, and not have any rust or slippage.”
When the Hawkeyes slipped up over their three straight losses to Minnesota, Illinois and Purdue, a common component was allowing 70 points or more. Iowa is holding opponents to an average of 62.4 points per game — fourth-fewest in the nation — but is just 1-4 when allowing at least 70.
USC (15-5, 4-5), meanwhile, comes into its first visit to Iowa City since 1982 scoring 82.1 points per game. The Trojans are 11-0 when scoring 80-plus points, and 1-4 when posting fewer than 70.
They improved to 14-1 when notching at least 70 points with a 73-71 defeat of Wisconsin on Sunday. Chad Baker-Mazara led USC in his second game back in the starting lineup after dealing with a neck injury. He scored 29 points to push his season average to 19.2 points per game.
Baker-Mazara is sixth in the Big Ten in scoring average, just ahead of Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz at 18.3 per game.
USC also got 17 points from Ezra Ausar and 11 rebounds from Jacob Cofie, who has grabbed a double-digit total of rebounds in each of the Trojans’ last three games.
“His effort to pursue balls has been phenomenal,” USC coach Eric Musselman said of Cofie’s rebounding. “Ezra, he’s really banged up, his back, his ankle, but he grinded through.”
Ausar playing through injury continues a theme for the Trojans this season, having lost scoring and assists leader Rodney Rice for the campaign to a shoulder injury. USC also was without blue-chip prospect Alijah Arenas until the Jan. 21 loss to Northwestern, the result of a knee injury sustained over the summer.
Arenas has struggled offensively in his two games thus far, shooting a combined 6-of-27 from the floor on the way to 15 total points.
–Field Level Media
