Arizona men’s basketball defended home court and picked up a much needed win over USC after suffering back-to-back losses in Washington and at home against UCLA. 

Here are the top five most important stats:

1

The win keeps Arizona in sole place for the number one spot in the Pac-12. USC and Washington were both one game behind Arizona, but now that Arizona has beaten USC and Washington lost to Oregon State, the Wildcats remain in the number one position in the Pac-12 with a two game advantage. 

20

Rawle Alkins scored 20 points, grabbed three rebounds and dished out five assists in Arizona’s win. Alkins missed three games recently with soreness in his foot. After getting cleared to play and returning, Alkins did not play play well, only scoring a combined nine points in both of Arizona’s losses. 

After his performance against USC, Alkins said he hadn’t lost confidence.

“It’s no secret that I have been struggling these last two weeks,” Alkins said. “I just had a bad two weeks. No pain. It was just me. I played like trash.

“I’ve been putting extra work in in the gym, putting in overtime, and its paying off.”

40

The Wildcats grabbed 40 rebounds against USC, out rebounding the Trojans 40-22. The biggest difference came in defensive rebounds as the Wildcats beat USC 28-16 in that category. Arizona also out rebounded the Trojans 12-6 on the offensive glass and that led to the Wildcats scoring 19 second chance points.

32

Arizona held USC to 32 percent from 3-point range. Overall the Wildcats perimeter defense was significantly better than it was in the loss to UCLA where the Bruins shot 46 percent from deep. 

56

The Wildcats shot 56 percent from the floor and 45 percent from deep. Arizona looked more like the team that everyone expected them to than perhaps in any other game this year. The Wildcats looked like a team capable of playing high powered offense and also playing strong defense.

Follow Nate Airulla on Twitter.