Trojans sweep mountain roadtrip to boost NCAA tournament hopes

Since their hiccup earlier this month, the USC basketball team has taken care of business -- four straight wins now after winning off the annual mountain roadtrip with a 62-49 win at Utah on Saturday night.

The usual catalysts all did their part as Boogie Ellis led the way with 16 points, Drew Peterson chipped in 14 with 8 assists, Kobe Johnson scored 12, Reese Dixon-Waters added 9 and Joshua Morgan and Vincent Iwuchukwu each swatted 3 blocks to lead the defensive effort.

USC is now 21-8 overall and 13-5 in Pac-12 play with two games to go, at home this week against Arizona and Arizona State. The Trojans are tied for second in the standings with the Wildcats but lost the first meeting of the season. The Sun Devils, meanwhile, sit in fourth place.

That means the Trojans have two more prime chances before the conference tournament to boost their NCAA tournament profile. As of Friday, ESPN's Joe Lunardi had USC projected as one of the last four teams into the NCAA tourney field.

USC has already clinched a first-round bye in the Pac-12 tournament for the fourth year in a row.