Arizona center Dusan Ristic, sporting a mouse under his right eye, gets his high-fives as he comes off the floor late in the second quarter against USC at McKale Center on Feb. 10, 2018.
By Justin Spears / Arizona Daily Star
With first place of the Pac-12 on the line and a three-game losing streak staring Arizona in the face, Saturday night's contest against USC had a sink-or-swim vibe to it.
After the loss to UCLA, Dusan Ristic said Arizona performs better when the Wildcats are having fun and against the Bruins, they didn't enjoy the game. The UA sure appeared to have a blast in the 81-67 win over USC, particularly Rawle Alkins.
In the back-to-back losses to Washington and UCLA, Alkins shot a combine 4 of 20 from the field for nine points. Alkins bested the last two games in just the first half against the Trojans with 11 points on 3 of 4 shooting from 3-point range. Alkins finished with game-high 20 points and five assists.
With UCLA falling to Arizona State and Washington losing to Oregon State, Arizona's scenario for the Pac-12 regular season title got much brighter, because it has a two-game lead in the conference.
So now what? Arizona is 20-6, 10-3 in the conference and hits the road next week to play ASU and the Sun Devils are coming off their first sweep of the season. Rivalry week is upon us.
Dusan Ristic, Sean Miller and Alkins spoke at the postgame press conference, here's what they had to say.
