In These House Plans, Trojans in Big Trouble

Having dropped his 40-point bomb on UCLA, Arizona State guard Eddie House has another explosion planned against USC.

After the Sun Devils lost to the Trojans, 95-92 in overtime, last month at the Sports Arena, the Pacific 10 Conference’s leading scorer at 22.9 points circled today’s return match on his calendar. It’s the senior’s last game against the Trojans.

“I definitely want something special to happen,” House said. “This will be a game I’m looking forward to. [Last time] there was a lot of jaw-jacking out there on both sides. I had good looks in that game, I just didn’t put them down.”

House, who missed a game-winning 12-footer with seconds left in regulation time, had only 13 points in the loss. And he had some pointed comments about the Trojans’ defense.

“They just fouled and got away with it,” House said. “I don’t want to sound like I’m crying or take away from their win. But there was a lot of holding and pushing; that’s just the honest truth.

“But it’s going to be different here.”

The Trojans, who have won their last four against the Sun Devils, know keeping House contained is the core of any defensive plan.

“Eddie is the key,” said David Bluthenthal, who had 28 rebounds last time against Arizona State. “And I think Jeff [Trepagnier] is our key. He’s up to the challenge, he’s going to put pressure on himself to contain Eddie House, but it’s also a team effort. We’ve got to contest his shots.”

Trepagnier said stopping House is definitely not a one-man effort: “We have to play good defense and not give him that many open looks. We’re going to show him a lot of defenses and hopefully take him out of his game.”

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Brian Scalabrine, with his 28 points against Arizona, topped 20 for his fourth consecutive game, becoming the first Trojan to do that since Stais Boseman had six consecutive 20-point games in 1995-96.

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Kostas Charissis finally got a chance to show some skills in the Arizona loss, because he got to play more than two minutes.

The freshman center has been USC’s biggest foul magnet, but he played 33 minutes and posted career highs in points, nine, and rebounds, eight.

“If I avoid fouls in the first couple of minutes, everything is good,” Charissis said. “I know I fouled more than five times, but the refs let us play. It was equal for their big men too. The game was played more freely.”

TONIGHT

at Arizona State, 5 PST

Fox Sports Net 2

* Site--Wells Fargo Center, Tempe, Ariz.

* Radio--XTRA (690).

* Records--USC 13-10, 6-5; Arizona State 15-9, 7-5.

* Update--Thursday’s crushing win over UCLA got a 22-game losing streak against the Bruins off Arizona State’s back. Now the Sun Devils, who have moved ahead of the Trojans into fourth place in the Pac-10, want to end a four-game losing streak to USC. The Trojans want to end their four-game losing streak to everybody.