USC opens ‘mini-season’ in a big way, beating Oregon State, 67-56

Kevin O’Neill boiled the eight games his team had left into a mini-season.

Then USC’s coach gathered his players during their first practice after last week’s loss to UCLA and spread the word.

Win half, plus maybe an extra win or two to be on the safe side, and they’d have enough capital to earn an NIT invitation.

But, if not, just stitch some wins together to have steam heading into the Pacific 10 Conference tournament at Staples Center.

The Trojans’ mini-season opened with Oregon State on Thursday at the Galen Center, and USC took care of business with a 67-56 victory in front of 3,853.

“All that talk of an eight-game season goes right down the drain if you lose,” O’Neill said, “so it was really important for us to get a win.”

The win ends a two-game skid for USC, 13-11 overall and 5-6 in the Pac-10, and a three-game skid against Oregon State (9-14, 4-8), which is 1-8 on the road.

USC had a double-digit lead for most of the game, which Oregon State whittled to five points midway in the second half.

“We wanted to settle down and get control of the game,” Trojans guard Jio Fontan said of that moment.

USC did, and a key three-point shot from freshman guard Maurice Jones with 2 minutes 50 seconds left put USC’s lead back to 10.

The game went to free throws and USC made enough to earn its first win against a school from Oregon since March 5, 2009, ending a losing streak at six games.

Oregon State missed on 15 of 17 three-point attempts in its win over USC last month in Corvallis, and those shooting woes traveled with them here, as the Beavers missed 10 of 11 from beyond the arc.

Oregon State shot 19 for 47 (40.4%) from the field overall, and USC shot 21 for 54 (38.9%).

The difference was points off turnovers: USC scored 28 on 19 Oregon State giveaways, and the Beavers scored just 10 points on 14 turnovers by USC.

Sophomore guard Jared Cunningham, who scored a career-high 24 points for Oregon State in the game last month, had 11 on Thursday.

USC forward Nikola Vucevic, who scored 26 points with 14 rebounds in the first game against Oregon State, dominated again with 17 points and 10 rebounds, his Pac-10-leading 13th double-double.

USC had an eight-day layoff separating the UCLA loss and Thursday but began the game looking sluggish.

That changed after a 30-second USC timeout that lasted all of five seconds with the Trojans trailing 11-6 with 15:18 left in the first half.

USC closed the half on a 31-12 run.

What was O’Neill’s message?

“We’re not guarding our man, and we need to guard our man, now,” he said.

They did, holding Oregon State to 24 fewer points than they did last month.

Which gave USC a 1-0 start in its eight-game season.

baxter.holmes@latimes.com