Box Score

March 8, 2003

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Desmon Farmer scored 27 points as Southern California beat Washington State 86-68 Saturday and clinched a spot in the Pacific 10 Conference tournament.

The Trojans (11-16, 6-12) will be the No. 7 seed in the tournament and will face either California or Stanford in the first round.

Washington State (7-20, 2-16) finishes in last place in the Pac-10.

The Cougars led 52-51 with 11:35 remaining, but the Trojans went on 10-0 run that included 5 points from Farmer to take a 61-52 lead with 8:39 left.

Washington State would get no closer than 5 points the rest of the game as USC pulled away late, taking a 70-60 lead with 5:57 remaining when Farmer hit a 3-pointer.

Farmer hit another 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to give USC an 82-68 lead.

The Trojans outscored the Cougars 21-7 in the final seven minutes.

Ezenwa Ueagu led Washington State with 23 points.

Rory ONeil scored 16 points and Jerry Dupree added 14 for USC, which broke a seven-game losing streak.

The lead changed hands nine times in the first half as neither team led by more than five points. USC led 31-28 with 4 minutes remaining but went scoreless for nearly 3 minutes while Washington State went on a 5-0 run to take a 33-31 lead with 1:25 left in the half.

Washington State took a 37-34 lead into halftime.