Though it won’t impress the NCAA seeding committee, if USC had to lose a game then this was a good choice.

The Trojans can still finish second in the Pac-10 by beating Washington State on Saturday. USC got a little help from its cross-town rivals today. UCLA's victory over the Cougars gave USC the tiebreaker edge over Washington State if the Trojans can win in Pullman.

The loss could drop USC a seed in the NCAA Tournament, though. The Trojans now have two bad losses in their past four games, to last-place Arizona State and now Washington. USC has lost three of its past four on the road.

``We're playing for seeding, coach said, and we never know how the tournament (selection) might go,'' Nick Young said. ``We might be shipped out to the East Coast to play against Florida.''

USC seemed lethargic on defense early, allowing the Huskies to come around screens and get open 3-point attempts. Washington made 9 of 13 3-pointers in the first half as the Huskies raced out to an 11-point lead.

``We put ourselves in a hole early by not defending,'' Tim Floyd said. ``It wasn't one of our better defensive efforts. ... I thought we didn't get back defensively with our perimiter players, and we made some real mistakes in terms of location.''

Washington shot 52 percent, highest percentage by a team against USC this season. The 15-point loss equals USC's worst of the season.

Though the game didn't mean much to the Trojans, it did to Lodrick Stewart.

Stewart, a senior, was returning home to the city where he went to high school for the last time as a Trojan. He finished 1-3 in Seattle.

Stewart's father Andrew, brothers Kadeem and Hadeem and so Jaylin were sitting behind the USC bench. Stewart, who usually does well in front of family members, scored nine points and had two key turnovers late in the game.

``It just didn't go my way tonight,'' Stewart said. ``This was one I wanted to look back on and say I beat UDUB my last game playing in front of my hometown fans. It's frustrating to lose this game.''