Fendi Onobun celebrates a second-half dunk in the UA's loss. The junior scored a season-high six points before fouling out.

James S. Wood / arizona daily star

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The book is out on how to guard Arizona's Jerryd Bayless and Chase Budinger.

It is not a long one.

Double them. Triple them. Pressure them. Throw fresh body after fresh body in their face. And wrap the two in your triangle-and-two around their necks.

Just go after them and pretty much ignore everybody else, as USC did in its 70-58 victory over the Arizona Wildcats on Thursday night at McKale Center, and you'll probably be fine.

A week after Washington strangled Arizona's top scoring duo with layers of depth, USC employed both a stifling man-to-man and a triangle-and-two gimmick to derail them.

"That's the way I'd play us," UA interim head coach Kevin O'Neill said.

Bayless tied his season-low of eight points on just 2-for-6 shooting, and Budinger had seven hard-earned points on 3-for-8 shooting.

O'Neill is hoping that was not a sign of things to come.

"I do have a concern, but I don't know what I can do about it," O'Neill said. "If people play us to shut those guys down no matter what, then we're limited in what we can do. Very limited."

With only Jordan Hill (18 points) and Jawann McClellan (14) managing to score in double figures, and the UA bench totaling just nine points, Arizona never got closer than a three-point deficit in the second half.

The Wildcats did get a season-high six points from Fendi Onobun, but even he could not stick fully around, picking up five fouls over eight minutes in the middle of the second half and leaving the game with 5:37 left.

So, in the end, the Wildcats left the padlock to its NCAA tournament chances open, dropping to 17-11 overall and 7-8 in Pac-10 with three regular-season games left to play. USC improved to 18-9 overall and 9-6 in the Pac-10.

The scary thing for the UA is, it can get worse. The Wildcats' next game is Sunday against UCLA, which has beaten them six straight times. Then they have a road swing to Oregon State and Oregon next week.

Just imagine what Oregon coach Ernie Kent was scribbling down in his notebook Thursday as the ESPN telecast unfolded on an off night for the Ducks.

"A lot of people in our league have the ability to do that," O'Neill said of USC's defense. "Until Nic (Wise) gets back. When Nic was playing, that wasn't even a factor. But it's a factor now."

O'Neill then stopped himself.

"I don't even want to talk about Nic now. They beat us. That's all there is to it."

Maybe so, but one of the vivid memories of the UA's 80-69 win over USC at Los Angeles last month was the way Wise penetrated into USC's triangle, while Budinger and Bayless were guarded one-on-one, then kicked it out to create repeated opportunities for McClellan.

McClellan said he tried to penetrate some Thursday, but even he said it was not quite the same. So did Budinger.

"It's completely different when Nic is in there because he's such a penetrator," Budinger said.

Budinger said it was also tougher because USC made enough shots to easily set up the triangle-and-two, playing it almost exclusively in the second half. The Trojans hit 52.9 percent from the field and, while Arizona hit 48.8 percent from the field, USC out-rebounded Arizona 30-20 and took eight more shots.

The Wildcats were also just 4 of 16 from three-point range, failing to knock down some open shots they had as a result of Budinger and Bayless being covered heavily.

"If we're not making shots as a team, we're not going to beat them in that triangle-and-two," Bayless said.

"It's not anybody's fault. It's all our faults. But if we're not making shots as a collective unit, we're not going to be able to beat them at triangle-and-two.

"The thing is, someone face-guards me and Chase the whole time and whenever we get the ball, we're dribbling into two or three people. They were taking a chance that somebody else would beat us."

Bayless did manage to escape the heat midway through the second half, when he grabbed the ball off a block by Hill, then raced downcourt for an emphatic dunk and picked up a foul. He made the ensuing free throw to cut USC's lead to 51-48, after the Trojans led by as many as 16 in the first half and nine at halftime.

But the Wildcats came no closer the rest of the way. Dwight Lewis scored to give USC a 62-55 lead entering the final three minutes and the Trojans coasted from there, with the game degenerating to the point where a fan seated in the UA student section threw a water bottle that hit Lewis in the leg.

By that point, Bayless' dunk had been long forgotten. Especially in his mind.

"It really doesn't matter," Bayless said. "We lost the game."