College basketball weekly: ASU men look to gain momentum from big win

The Arizona State men bounced back from a disappointing loss to UCLA with a massive 82-67 win over USC on Saturday.

The Sun Devils (11-7, 5-2) used a late first-half surge to take a lead over the Trojans and didn’t look back for a statement win.

ASU’s next trip starts at Oregon at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Ducks have dropped their last two games, including a close three-point loss to Utah. The Sun Devils will then head over to Corvallis for a 5 p.m. Saturday showdown against Oregon State. Both games will air on the Pac-12 Networks.

ASU women get first conference win

The Arizona State women’s basketball team returns home after capturing its first Pac-12 win of the season over the weekend.

Backed by Jalyn Brown’s 34 points, the Sun Devils (9-10, 1-6 in Pac-12) defeated Washington 73-65 on Sunday to surpass last season’s win total.

Brown, who scored 35 points earlier this season against Colorado, posted her eighth game of the season with 20 or more points. The Louisville transfer ranks fifth in the conference in points per game with 17.3 and has averaged 25 points over the last three games.

ASU will get a break from its ongoing stretch, in which seven of nine games are on the road, by playing host to Stanford at 6 p.m. on Friday at Desert Financial Arena and California at noon on Sunday.

No. 6 Stanford (17-2, 6-1) sits atop the conference and has won five of its last six. Cal (13-6, 3-4) snapped a four-game losing streak on Sunday with a 66-57 win over Oregon. 

No. 9 Arizona men back on track ahead of Oregon road trip

Arizona earned two big wins over the weekend against USC and UCLA, including a 19-point comeback against the Bruins on Saturday.

The Wildcats (14-4, 5-2 Pac-12) had fallen four spots in the national polls following their loss to Washington State on Jan. 13, but have gone up three spots since the weekend.

Arizona will go on the road to face Oregon State (9-9, 1-6) on Thursday at 9 p.m. and Oregon (13-5, 5-2) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. The Wildcats remain in the top spot of the conference, while the Ducks sit in second place.

GCU men face hardest road stretch of season

Defense disappeared. They relied heavily on three players to carry the offense. And they couldn't make plays in the end that had separated them from the rest of the WAC.

In Grand Canyon's 86-79 loss at Seattle U on Saturday night, the Lopes not only saw their 14-game winning streak (which was the nation's second-longest active at the time) end, but now they've got questions to answer after losing for the first time since Nov. 19.

They're hitting the hardest stretch of their WAC basketball schedule with two more road games this week, on Thursday against Stephen F. Austin (12-6, 5-2) and Saturday against UT Arlington (9-10, 4-4).

GCU (17-2, 7-1) can't afford these losses in order to hold onto the top spot in the conference. The top two teams get byes to the WAC Tournament semifinals in Las Vegas in March. SFA won its last two games by a total of seven points, including an 89-84 overtime win over Seattle U at home on Jan. 18.

Six SFA players scored in double figures in that game, led by Nana Antwi-Boasiako's 16 points and Jalil Beaubrun's 16 points and 10 rebounds.

GCU relied so much on Gabe McGlothan, Tyon Grant-Foster and Ray Harrison in the Seattle loss. They combined to take 44 of their team's 54 shots, and accounted for 64 of their team's 79 points. Jovan Blacksher Jr., who had his best game last Thursday in a 13-point win over Utah Valley, took only one shot, making a 3, in just 12 minutes at Seattle.

GCU women still unbeaten in WAC play

The GCU women's team, having its best season since becoming Division I 11 years ago, overcame last-place Seattle U at home in double overtime 84-73. That extended the current winning streak to eight games and improved GCU's record to 16-3 and 8-0 in the WAC. The Lopes remain at home this week with a game Thursday against Stephen F. Austin (12-6, 6-1) and on Saturday at 2 p.m. against UT Arlington (9-9, 5-3).

The Lopes (16-3, 8-0 WAC) hold the program's second-most wins at the 19-game point since the 2011-12 season, when they went 17-2. The current winning streak is tied for the 10th-longest active run in the nation.

Trinity San Antonio and Naudia Evans lead GCU in scoring, both averaging 11 points a game.

UA women hope to snap 4-game losing streak with homestand

The Wildcats will return to the comforts of home after dropping the last four games on the road. Three of the last four losses have been by a margin of three points or less.

The Wildcats (10-9, 2-5) will start a three-game home stretch Friday at 7 p.m. against California and will host Stanford at noon on Sunday. The last time a ranked opponent came to McKale Center, the Wildcats knocked off then-No. 15 Utah by one point.

—The Republic's Richard Obert contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU, Arizona men's basketball hit the road against Oregon schools