Pac-12 in Sweet 16: USC Beats Oregon; Gonzaga Next for Trojans

Seconds after No. 6 seed USC beat No. 7 seed Oregon 82-68 in an NCAA tournament Sweet 16 game on Sunday night, the attention turned to the Trojans' matchup against No. 1 Gonzaga and a dream matchup at the center position.

This is the first time ever that Los Angeles rivals USC and UCLA both reached the Elite Eight in the same season. Pac-12 teams are 12-2 in the NCAA tournament, with three of its teams in the Elite Eight (USC, UCLA and Oregon State). No other conference has more than one Elite Eight representative.

But the focus will be on Tuesday's 4:15 Pacific time between USC and the Zags, and the matchup of Drew Timme against Evan Mobley.

Gonzaga has won each of its NCAA tournament games by at least 16 points, including Sunday's 83-65 victory over Creighton.  The 6-foot-10 Timme, a second-team All-American, scored 30 points in the second-round win over Oklahoma and 22 in Sunday's victory over Creighton, and he was 19-for-26 from the field in those two games.

But USC can counter with the 7-foot Evans, the Pac-12 player of the year and conference defensive player of the year. He had just 10 points on Sunday, but added eight rebounds, six assists and two blocked shots.  He intimidated every Oregon shot around the basket. He ranks sixth in the nation in blocked shots at 3.0 per game, and had a thunderous dunk Sunday, as noted below in a video and photo:

Gonzaga leads the nation in scoring and field-goal percentage (54.9 percent before Sunday), but the Trojans came into Sunday's action ranked fourth in the country in  field-goal percentage defense, limiting opponents to 38.7 percent shooting. They limited Oregon, which started the day leading the Pac-12 in field-goal percentage, to 37.7 percent shooting on Sunday, and that included 5-for-21 on three-pointers.

"I let the guys down," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "I didn't have them ready for that zone. I thought we were. But their length and athleticism really bothered us. And we just didn't have good ball movement."

Meanwhile, USC made 57.4 percent of its shots and hit 10-of-17 shots from long distance.  And the Trojans seem to be getting better with each game.

Gonzaga has dominated its competition in the NCAA tournament, but so has USC, which beat Drake by 16 points, Kansas by 34 points, and Pac-12 champion Oregon by 14 points.

"I can't wait to go against them," said older brother Isaiah Mobley, a 6-foot-10 player,  who had 13 points, six rebounds and a block Sunday. "It'll be a great fight."

Isaiah White had 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting for the Trojans (25-7) on Sunday, and Tahj Eaddy added 20 on 7-for-11 shooting.

Eugene Omoruyi scored 28 points for Oregon and Chris Duarte added 21, but they did not get much help.

USC held a 15-point lead at halftime and stretched its lead to 21 points with 9:58 left in the second half. The Ducks (21-7) got the deficit down to nine points with 3:54 to go, but on the ensuing possession Eaddy nailed a three-pointer to end the threat.

USC dominated the first half and held a 41-26 lead at the break.  Eaddy, who had 24 points in the Trojans' 14-point win over Oregon back on Feb. 22, scored 12 first-half points for USC on Sunday.

White also had 12-first half points for USC, which shot 58.9 percent from the field and hit 5-of-9 shots from long range in the first 20 minutes while limiting Oregon to 30.3 percent shooting overall and 3-for-12 from beyond the three-point arc.

Teams in the Elite Eight from each major conference

Pac-12 -- 3

SEC -- 1

Big Ten -- 1

Big 12 -- 1

WCC -- 1

American -- 1

Big East -- 0

ACC -- 0

Atlantic 10 -- 0

Mountain West -- 0

Missouri Valley -- 0

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Cover photo of USC's Ethan Anderson is by Trevor Ruszkowski, USA TODAY Sports

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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