ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, CALIF. – The USC Trojans continued to lead the team race with a three-round total 27-under, five shots ahead of second-place ARIZONA STATE at the Pac-12 Men’s Golf Championships at Rolling Hills Country Club (Par 71, 7,130 yards) in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.

After posting a team score of 4-under for the day, the Trojans will be paired in the final round with the hard-charging Sun Devils, who fired a team score of 14-under to move up three spots in the standings, and COLORADO.

“Seemed like we had it going pretty good there for a while, and I think we sputtered a little bit coming in, but that’s okay, that’s golf,” stated USC coach Chris Zambri. “We are still in a great spot and looking for a great day tomorrow.”

For the second consecutive round, USC Justin Suh posted the low round of the day with a 6-under 65 to push his lead in the individual race to six strokes and is sitting at 16-under 197 (68-64-65) for the Championship. ARIZONA’s George Cunningham is second at 10-under.

Buoyed by the play of freshmen Koichiro Ishika (5-under 66) and Mason Andersen (4-under 67), Arizona State fired the day’s low round (14-under) to move up three spots in the standings and is at 22-under for the Championships. Ishika is at 9-under for the Championships and is in third place.

“USC played so well yesterday, that the only way we could get anywhere near it for the final round was to have a big day today,” said Arizona State coach Matt Thurmond. We didn’t do anything special, just took advantage of the par 5’s and everyone did their job. I felt like if we could get within six to eight shots we’d have a chance. Hopefully, we will have a shot tomorrow.”

On the performance of Ishika and Andersen, Thurmond added, “Today was huge for our freshmen. I say it all the time, you hope they are sophomores by now. They have done an awesome job and am really excited for them. They have so much enthusiasm and fire and they’ve improved so much.”

COLORADO, behind the play of Yannik Paul and Ross Macdonald, remains in third-place at 19-under, eight strokes back of the Trojans. Both Paul and Macdonald are tied for fourth at 8-under after shooting third round scores of 3-under and 4-under, respectively. CALIFORNIA (-12) sits in fourth and STANFORD (-11) is in fifth. WASHINGTON STATE (-8) in in sixth place after an impressive third round 13-under, and is the only other team in red numbers.

Chip Shots… Low round for the first round was turned in by Stanford’s Franklin Huang (65), while Suh and Onishi posted the low round for the second round (64). Suh and Washington State’s Zach Anderson posted the low score for the third round (65) … The low freshman through three rounds continues to be Arizona State’s Ishika at 9-under 204 (69-69-66) … 30 players have shot even par or better through three rounds … USC looks to become the first Pac-12 team to host and win the Championships since Washington in 2009.

The Championships will conclude with the final round on Wednesday beginning at 8 a.m. PT.

Third Round Team Results (Par 71, 7,130 yards)

Third Round Individual Leaders (Par 71, 7,130 yards)