Metu's career-high 29 fuels USC past Washington State

(AP) — Southern California coach Andy Enfield, whose Trojans doubled their conference road win total from last season on Saturday night, acknowledged the difficulty of winning on the road in the Pac-12.

Chimezie Metu scored a career-high 29 points, grabbed eight rebounds and Southern California shot 73.9 percent in the second half to outlast Washington State 86-77 on Saturday night for its first conference road-trip sweep since 2011.

WSU made 5 of its first 11 3-point attempts, but the Trojans turned a 20-8 interior scoring advantage into a five-point halftime lead.

Freshman Jeff Pollard played 13 second-half minutes in an attempt to offset Metu.

After a Josh Hawkinson dunk with 10:17 left gave the Cougars a two-point advantage, USC responded by scoring 15 of the next 17 points to take the lead for good.

The Cougars followed up a strong 1-1 road trip last week by dropping two at home to two of the Pac-12's better teams.

After losing to No. 11 UCLA on Thursday in a game closer than the final score indicated, WSU couldn't contain USC inside on Saturday.

USC received 29 votes in last week's AP poll and will inch closer to another top-25 ranking after a key road sweep.