Arizona's win over previous-No. 17 USC on Saturday came in impressive fashion as the Wildcats were able to lock up a split of their trip to Los Angeles by beating the top team in the Pac-12. They did it thanks to contributions from all over the floor, but it would have been difficult for UA to secure its 15th win of the season without its two key front court players.

Freshman Azuolas Tubelis and redshirt sophomore Jordan Brown combined for 35 points and 28 rebounds in the win over the Trojans.

For Tubelis it marked the second game against USC that he put together a standout performance after he scored 31 points in Arizona's loss to the Trojans back in early January.

Brown has had plenty of ups and downs during his first season on the floor for the Wildcats after sitting out the 2019-20 season because of transfer rules. However, his 19 points and 13 rebounds off the bench against the front court group that has been touted as the best in the league certainly speaks to his potential as a standout big man in the Pac-12 himself.

"This was one of his overall best games as well," UA head coach Sean Miller said of Brown. "If you think about Christian (Koloko) having foul trouble, playing 10 minutes and fouling out, somebody really had to step up and I thought it was like a one-two punch. It was Jordan Brown and Azuolas that both did a great job inside."

For Brown it wasn't that USC is given credit for having such a strong front court group, led by freshman Evan Mobley, that pulled the best out of Tubelis and himself. Rather, he just feels the duo was more prepared to take the floor Saturday after a difficult loss to UCLA a couple nights earlier.

“I think we just came out ready to play,” Brown said. “We were playing pretty physical, we went at them and our guards were finding us inside the entire game making it easy for us. We were just going through trying to get every rebound we could.”

Tubelis has started to look the part of a future star for the Wildcats as the season has moved along. He has had some growing pains on the defensive end, but his offensive production has continued to climb. Saturday he proved to be a key cog for the team and Miller believes putting Tubelis in some difficult matchups throughout the season has helped him when he gets in situations like he did Saturday when he faces more traditional post players.

"He's just more at ease playing against front court players even if they're great players because he's very good himself," Miller said of his freshman power forward who had 16 points and 15 rebounds in the win over USC. "Where we've struggled with matchups is forcing and really asking him to guard wings and smaller forwards, the skilled player. That's difficult for a 19-year-old freshman.

"I think that's one of the things that's really developing him as a player is that defensively we're asking him to do so many different things, and on offense sometimes he's being guarded by smaller quick players. Sometimes he's being guarded by bigger guys. Every time that he plays I think he gets more and more comfortable, but he had a really good game tonight."

The Wildcats have two games left on the schedule as they look to finish up the regular season a winning streak with Washington State and Washington making the trip to Tucson to wrap things up.

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