ESPN Men's Basketball

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- Southern California certainly didn't look like a last-place team on its annual Pac-10 road trip to Arizona.

The Trojans, who always seem to play Arizona State tough, got a career-high 22 points from Nick Young and 19 from Lodrick Stewart and beat the Sun Devils 98-94 Saturday night.

The win two nights after USC pushed No. 17 Arizona hard in a 77-68 loss ended the Trojans' worst conference start in 16 years. They started 0-12 in 1988-89 and snapped that skid with an 84-81 overtime win over Arizona State in Tempe.

"It's a great, gutty win," interim coach Jim Saia said. "This team is still competing. This is a good basketball team with a lot of good players. They're just starting to learn the system.

"We shot over 50 percent in two games in the desert, on the road, so we're excited about our basketball team."

Gabriel Pruitt had all 14 points in the second half. Jeff McMillan scored 13 and Nick Curtis 10 for the Trojans, and each had eight rebounds as USC won the battle on the glass 34-30 -- helping its effective fast break.

Young, a freshman, had 19 points in the second half, which USC started with a 46-41 lead.

"I'm just growing up fast in the program," Young said. "Looking to play. It was urgent; we needed this first win. Hopefully we can feed off this and continue to go on a winning streak."

Arizona State (13-4, 2-3) fought back to lead twice, only to fall behind.

Serge Angounou led Arizona State with a career-high 20 points.

Kevin Kruger had 17 and Ike Diogu 15. Diogu also had five blocks, but matched his season-low in points under the strain of incessant double-teaming and fouled out for the first time this season.

"We've got to get back to stopping people," Diogu said about giving up the most points at home since Arizona scored 101 on Feb. 27, 1988. "We've got to stop worrying about outside things and play like we have been -- defense first."

Angounou gave the Sun Devils a 58-56 lead with a reverse dunk with 10:59 to play, and made two free throws 31 seconds later to negate a 3-pointer by Pruitt.

McMillan made a hook shot as USC regained the lead for good, 61-60, at the 10:15 mark, and Young had 11 points in the next 8 minutes while the Trojans ran to an 84-74 lead.

Kruger is a sophomore and Tim Pierce, the only reserve among three Arizona State players who had 10 points, is a freshman. Wilfried Fameni, another sophomore had six points and four rebounds in 10 minutes, and coach Rob Evans said the team's first two-game skid might be a time to look at lineups.

"We made some miniruns when we brought in the young guys who had some passion about the game," Evans said. "Those guys are wanting to play. We have guys that have gotten satisfied, and we have to take care of that issue."

Saia shook things up before the game by keeping Rory O'Neil, who had started every game, and Pruitt, who had started 12 straight, on the bench for the first 6½ minutes. The Trojans still trailed just 15-14 after Stewart's third 3-pointer with 13:48 remaining.

O'Neil then made his first three shots during a surge that lifted USC to a 29-20 lead with 7:47 to go.

But the Sun Devils, with Diogu unable to get a clear shot, relied on other players during a 13-4 run to tie it at 33 on a 3-pointer by Kruger, setting off another run by the Trojans.