USC basketball coach Andy Enfield said he just had a feeling Saturday ...

"I told coach [Chris] Capko before the game, I said, 'Tahj Eaddy is going to play great tonight.' I just had a feeling. I didn't expect it to be 29 points," Enfield noted.

Indeed, Eaddy, the veteran guard who transferred in this season from Santa Clara, had his best game at USC while scoring 29 to lead the Trojans to a 76-65 win at Washington State.

No. 20-ranked USC completed the road sweep of the Washington schools, picked up its sixth straight win and improved to 17-3 overall and 11-2 in the Pac-12 while maintaining its grip on first place in the conference.

Freshman Evan Mobley had another big game with 20 points, 11 rebound and 6 blocks, as he and Eaddy were the only Trojans to score in double figures.

Eaddy had started hot, scoring 18 first-half points on 8-of-11 shooting, and finished 10 of 16 from the field overall and 7 of 8 from the foul line. His previous season high was 21 points points, while his career-high is 30, set during the 2018-19 season at Santa Clara.

"He didn't have a very good game against Washington, he struggled a little with his shooting and his offense, so I just had this feeling. He shot the ball terrifically in shootaround this morning, and this is a shooter's gym. I always like coming here, for some reason we always shoot the ball well here, so I just had a feeling," Enfield continued. "My feelings aren't always right, now -- I just got lucky on this one -- but Tahj had a really good focus tonight and just played great basketball."

Eaddy, one of four transfers in USC's nine-man rotation, has emerged as one of the key factors in the Trojans enjoying their best start in Pac-12 play since 1992. And he's become seemingly more confident and definitely more assertive of late, notching at least 10 shot attempts in each of the last four games.

Enfield noted that it takes time for a player to get used to a new coaching staff, a new system and what it requires, and then Eaddy's role changed a bit when starting point guard Ethan Anderson missed six weeks with a back injury early in the season. He's second on the team at 13.5 points per game for the season and was at his best Saturday night.

"Tahj is spectacular. He shot 3s, he put the ball on the floor, he pulled up from mid-range, he was able to get to the rim. He just controlled the game. He did what he wanted and it was very impressive," Enfield said. "... He's a talented young man that doesn't get sped up and is very solid with his offensive game. ... Our coaching staff is very proud of Tahj to learn our system and to play with confidence and we need him to continue this if we're going to keep winning games."

As for the win over Washington State (12-9, 5-9), it went down to the final minutes, but it sure felt like the Trojans could have made things easier on themselves with a cleaner first half.

USC jumped out to a 17-5 lead powered by 12 quick points from Eaddy, but the Cougars came all the way back to tie it later in the half. Eventually, the Trojans would take a 41-35 advantage into halftime after committing 12 first-half turnovers (and only 4 the rest of the game).

"We made up ways to turn the ball over in the first half," Enfield said. "We had charges, we dribbled the ball off our foot, one time Tahj Eaddy went out of bounds and came back and touched the ball first. We were just making up ways. ... It was just a frustrating first half."

Washington State kept its deficit mostly between 4-8 points for a long stretch of the second half before making a surge, when Aljaz Kunc hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 63-61 with a little more than 5 minutes remaining.

Enfield called timeout to address a defensive breakdown with his star freshman Mobley. He's made a point to note that despite the mounting accolades and Pac-12 Player of the Year candidacy for the newcomer, the staff doesn't treat the projected NBA draft lottery pick any differently, and this was an example of that.

"Well, I was mad at Evan because we were switching between man and zone, we went back to man and he let the 3-point shooter shoot a 3 and he didn't challenge the shot. So my conversation for about 50 seconds out of the 60 was to Evan. I wasn't very happy, but Evan came out then and dominated the last four and a half minutes," Enfield said.

Coming out of that timeout, Enfield called an isolation play for Mobley, who got to the line and hit both free throws.

Meanwhile the Cougars started unraveling. Talented WSU guard Isaac Bonton (17 points) drew a technical foul for complaining about a call, Noah Williams turned it over, they would later throw a pass out of bounds on a miscommunication, etc.

But USC hadn't yet put the game away when Isaiah Mobley stepped to the foul line with 2:13 left and the Trojans up 6 points. The older Mobley has had a tough season at the line, shooting 46.2 percent on a high volume of opportunities, but he calmly knocked down both those big shots to further the separation.

"I actually thought he was going to make both free throws, because he's been working on it, his form and technique is getting better, his rotation, his follow-through, and he shot very well this morning and yesterday. And I just had a feeling he was going to make both of those, and he did," Enfield said.

Eaddy would hit 4 free throws over the next two possessions to push the lead back to 10 entering the final minute as the Trojans coasted from there.

USC jumped into the rankings this past week at No. 20 for the first time since December of 2017 and it has six regular-season games left plus the Pac-12 tournament to continue making an impression on the NCAA tournament committee. That group convened this weekend to outline the top four seeds in each region (top 16 overall) as it stands now, and the Trojans did not make that cut, but Enfield said it was hardly a concern right now.

Next up is Arizona State on Wednesday at the Galen Center.

"We have [six] regular-season games left and then the Pac-12 tournament -- we don't even consider where we're going to be seeded. In fact, there's no guarantee we're going to make the tournament, so we just have to focus game to game. This is a marathon season," he said. "... But I do like where we are. I like the fact we're 17-3 and we're being mentioned in the bracket. ... Our players deserve the recognition because sometimes the Pac-12 goes unnoticed a little bit at times because the game times are late on the east coast, so at least it's nice to have some recognition. But we understand it's a long season ahead and we have to continue to take it game by game."