Andy Enfield assesses the importance of having momentum down the stretch

The USC Trojans bounced back from a double-overtime loss to Colorado in their last game versus in-state rival UCLA this weekend, defeating the Bruins 62-56 on Saturday.

The win marks just the fifth of the season in conference play for USC, ranking second to last in the Pac-12 standings. But with four games remaining in the regular season and the conference tournament around the corner, Trojans’ head coach Andy Enfield believes that his team could be generating some positive momentum at the right time.

“Well I think you try to get momentum at any time towards the end of the season, we played really well last week,” Enfield said following Saturday’s win. “We lost an overtime game, we gave it away because of our free throw shooting and a couple offensive rebounds, double overtime. We lost an overtime game to Cal, we missed a free throw with 15 seconds left. So we’ve been right there since we got healthy the last two weeks, we’ve been right there.”

Injuries have decimated the Trojans this season, starting with Bronny James missing the first eight games of the season following his cardiac arrest incident this summer and bookended by three starters all suffering from injuries at the same time (Isaiah Collier, Boogie Ellis, and Joshua Morgan).

But now that his team is fully healthy, Enfield has liked what he’s seen from the Trojans’ despite the scoreboard not always going their way as of late.

“We didn’t play well one game but the other games, the four out of five, we played very well and I think it’s important for us to try to finish strong,” Enfield explained. “We have to on the road next week and have a home stand to finish and we haven’t even thought about Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament but we’ll get to that.”

USC has gone 3-3 in their last six games, showing improvement from a six-game losing streak that proceeded their recent stretch.

“We just need to keep improving, it’s nice as a coaching staff to be able to practice with a full roster and actually see improvement in your basketball team,” Enfield said. “We’ve been missing that almost the entire season.”

There’s no question the cards will be against the Trojans ahead of the Pac-12 Tournament. But they will face the top two teams in the conference within their final four games of the season, allowing them to truly put their newfound momentum and full health to the test versus the Pac-12’s best that they could very well face in the postseason.

USC visits No. 21 Washington State in their next matchup on Thursday at 10:30 p.m. ET in a game airing on Pac-12 Network.