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Arizona State hopes to keep USC down

Jan 15, 2009 - 11:41 AM No. 15 Arizona State (14-2) at USC (10-5), 10:30 p.m. EST

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Arizona State opens a three-game road trip on Thursday when it visits slumping Southern California in a Pac-10 Conference contest.

The 15th-ranked Sun Devils (14-2, 3-1 Pac-10), who will travel to seventh-ranked UCLA on Saturday before visiting Arizona, won a pair of games with ease against Oregon State and Oregon last week.

James Harden led five players in double figures with 19 points and Derek Glasser added 15 and 11 assists as Arizona State posted a 76-58 victory over Oregon on Saturday. Harden is averaging 23.1 points per game to lead the team.

Expected to be in the upper half of the conference standings, the Trojans (10-5, 1-2) have gotten off to a slow start.

Following a loss at Oregon State - that snapped the Beavers' 23-game conference losing streak - USC dropped a 64-60 contest to UCLA on Sunday.

Freshman DeMar DeRozan scored 15 points in the loss and is one of four Trojans averaging in double figures at 12 per game. Taj Gibson and Dwight Lewis are each scoring 15.3 points per contest.

USC has won 10 of the past 12 home meetings with Arizona State.