No letdown for 0-14 Beavers

The phrases “Arizona State” and “last year” entered the discussion Friday as USC prepared to face another Pacific 10 Conference team with an uh-oh-and-14 conference record.

It was almost exactly a year ago that the Trojans traveled to Tempe, Ariz., and emerged with a 68-58 loss that provided the Sun Devils their first Pac-10 victory after 14 consecutive losses to open conference play.

Tonight at the Galen Center, USC faces an Oregon State team that is 0-14 in the Pac-10 and has lost 16 consecutive games overall.

There is one significant difference between last season’s Sun Devils and this season’s Beavers: Arizona State routinely challenged its opponents and Oregon State has lost its 14 conference games by an average of 18 points, including a 68-44 defeat against USC on Jan. 24 in Corvallis.

The Beavers lost their last two games by 38 points to Washington and 35 points to UCLA, and things are unraveling to the point that two Oregon State players reportedly challenged their Washington counterparts to a fight in a hotel parking lot before the Washington defeat.

Nevertheless, freshman guard O.J. Mayo said the Trojans wouldn’t overlook Oregon State as they attempt to secure another victory that would improve their NCAA tournament prospects.

“I think we’ve got a very strong conference from top to bottom,” Mayo said. “I think they’re just as important as the first-place team in our league.”

Coach Tim Floyd said the Trojans didn’t underestimate Arizona State last season, they merely fell victim to a team that finally put everything together after losing its previous five games by an average of four points.

“I think they just beat us,” Floyd said. “It wasn’t like we didn’t come out, like we were flat. We just got beat by a team that really just defended us like we hadn’t been defended in a long time.”

About the only thing the Beavers appear to have going in their favor tonight are their team colors -- the same orange-and-black combination that Mercer and Fresno Pacific wore during upset victories over the Trojans earlier this season at the Galen Center.

--

TONIGHT

vs. Oregon State, 5, FSN Prime Ticket

Site -- Galen Center.

Radio -- 710.

Records -- USC 16-9 overall, 7-6 Pac-10; Oregon State 6-20, 0-14.

Update -- Oregon State will again have the services of senior Marcel Jones and freshman Sean Carter, who were suspended for the Beavers’ 84-49 loss to UCLA because of their reported actions in a taunting incident last week involving Washington. Jones, a former Santa Ana Mater Dei High standout, told the Portland (Ore.) Oregonian on Friday that the incident had been wrongly portrayed in the media and that neither he nor Carter challenged any Huskies player to a fight. Jones said they merely responded to some trash-talking on the part of Washington freshman Venoy Overton on Feb. 15 at Gill Coliseum but did not leave any voice mails confronting Huskies players.

--

ben.bolch@latimes.com