Hunting for its third straight win, the WSU men’s basketball team hopes for a blessing from above in the city of angels.

The Cougars (13-15, 6-10) visit USC on Wednesday for their second meeting with the Trojans and are hoping that their late-season momentum, generated from home victories over Arizona State and Washington, will help them get better results this time around.

The Trojans (21-8, 8-8) pulled away from the Cougars in the second half for the 86-77 win back on Feb. 4 in Pullman. WSU jumped out to an early 14-3 lead but was undone by USC sophomore forward Chimezie Metu’s 29-point, eight-rebound effort.

“When it was crunch time, we took some bad shots and we made some bad plays,” WSU senior guard Ike Iroegbu said in the postgame press conference. “[USC] capitalized on that and it is frustrating.”

Iroegbu also said that the teams’ starters playing extended minutes did not affect its performance and was not an excuse for the loss. Iroegbu played a total of 39 minutes in the game, leading the Cougars with 22 points, while senior forward Josh Hawkinson added 17 and took 16 rebounds.

The loss was the second of a five-game losing streak WSU broke with an 86-71 win over the Sun Devils on Feb. 18.

The Trojans are currently on the wrong side of a four-game losing streak, and now suddenly find themselves squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble, after being a seemingly near-lock for the postseason two weeks ago.

Up 82-76 with 2:08 remaining in Sunday’s road contest at Arizona State, after Metu converted a basket inside, the Sun Devils mounted a 7-0 run, stealing a win from the Trojans. USC had the ball one last time in the game with 28 seconds remaining but was unable to get a shot off on its final play.

‘’I couldn’t really see what happened,’’ USC Head Coach Andy Enfield said of the Trojans’ final offensive possession. ‘’We missed open shots [and] turned the ball over.”

Sunday’s come-from-behind 79-71 win over the Huskies provided the Cougars with a jolt of energy entering the final week of the regular season that was missing in the team’s loss to USC earlier in the month.

With more than 5,000 spectators in attendance at Beasley Coliseum on Sunday, the season’s largest total, WSU Head Coach Ernie Kent said the crowd’s energy was a factor in helping the Cougars sweep the Huskies for the first time since the 2010-2011 season.

“Everybody has that ‘it’ and when that energy rises up, we are able to go on that run,” Kent said. “We don’t do that when that energy is not in the building. That building needs to be on fire like that for every game.”

However, with the Pac-12 Tournament starting next week and the Cougars finishing their regular season slate at UCLA on Saturday, WSU is on the road the rest of the way and will have to find a new source of energy.

Wednesday’s game is set for 7 p.m. at the Galen Center and will also air on the Pac-12 Network. The Cougars’ game at UCLA on Saturday has been moved to a 7:15 p.m. start time, as ESPN has picked up broadcasting rights for the contest.