USC Wins in Fourth Overtime, 80-78 : Simpson’s Layup Gives Trojans Sweep, Puts Them Alone at Top

The old order changed very late Thursday night when USC’s Trojans, who had UCLA down all night, finally put the Bruins away. Larry Friend, the little Trojan who had cut down Oregon State with one shot, did an encore for UCLA’s benefit, hitting reserve center Charlie Simpson for a wide-open layup with :02 left in the fourth overtime, giving USC an 80-78 victory.

USC thus swept the season series between these teams for the first time since 1942. USC students danced around Pauley Pavilion waving brooms to celebrate. It wasn’t a great moment to be a Bruin.

The Trojans are 12-4, in first place in the Pacific 10, a game ahead of Arizona, which lost at Washington.

The Bruins are 9-6 in the conference and all but mathematically eliminated. Coach Walt Hazzard had called this “sudden death. . . . We lose, we’re dead.”

They lost. They had Dave Immel at the free-throw line with :10 left in the fourth overtime, shooting two free throws, but Immel missed both. The Trojans rebounded and got the ball to Friend, who squirted past a Bruin in the backcourt and then hit Simpson, who had gotten open behind the UCLA defense.

Simpson said he was open because UCLA freshman Kelvin Butler had left him.

Simpson said that he almost threw the ball to Wayne Carlander. “Then I said, ‘Hey, I’m open!’ ” Simpson said.

Butler was playing because Brad Wright had turned an ankle. Montel Hatcher and Craig Jackson had fouled out for the Bruins, along with Clayton Olivier and Derrick Dowell for the Trojans.

“They just caught us napping coming back down the floor,” Hazzard said. “We’ve lost some tough games, and this is another one. Maybe I’ll learn something as a coach from it. Right now, it doesn’t taste good. I’m usually half-way congenial, but tonight I don’t feel like it at all.”

USC Coach Stan Morrison: “It was a game nobody deserved to lose. I told Walt that after the game. It may be our biggest win in 25 years. We’ll know in a month if it was.”

Lost in the wash of the final play was one fabulous individual performance, that of Carlander, the USC forward, who had been held to 5 for 13 and 13 points by Nigel Miguel in the first meeting. Carlander went through half of the Bruin roster this time, scoring 38 points, shooting 14 for 19, taking 13 rebounds, playing 59 minutes.

Lost also were the Bruin rallies. UCLA took the Trojans apart for a few moments with their press and grabbed a 10-1 lead. Carlander then single-handedly outscored UCLA, 10-1, to tie the game.

The Bruins had their last lead with 3:30 left in the first half. They were 10 points behind in the second. With 1:24 left in regulation, they still trailed, 63-57. Then the Trojans started missing the front halves of one-and-ones, including one by Friend, who was to be the game’s hero. (Friend also shot an airball on a third-overtime free throw that allowed the Bruins to tie the score.)

With :01 left in regulation, Corey Gaines, the UCLA reserve guard who hadn’t even played in the first meeting, hit a 12-footer in the lane over Friend to tie the game, 64-64.

The teams tied, 4-4, in the second overtime. USC had two two-point leads. The Bruins tied it twice, the last on Miguel’s two free throws with 1:12 left. Miguel had missed a big free throw that could have tied the game in the first UCLA loss to USC.

The teams tied, 0-0, in the second overtime. The Bruins had the ball last and let Reggie Miller take the last shot. Miller backed up to 23 or 24 feet, let one fly and missed.

They tied the third, 6-6. Carlander, blanked in the first and second overtimes, scored the first four points in this period, giving USC a 72-68 lead. His first basket came on a rebound, while Gary Maloncon and another Bruin were diving on him, trying to tackle him. His second was on a short jumper after Maloncon had blocked his shot. But the Trojans missed three of their last four free throws, including Friend’s airball that gave UCLA the ball back with :36 left and a two-point deficit. After misses by Miguel and Maloncon, Gaines grabbed the rebound and scored with :12 left, tying the game once more, 74-74.

The Trojans took another lead, 77-74, early in the fourth overtime, but the Bruins caught them again. With the game tied, Immel, the sophomore reserve guard, blocked Carlander shot from behind. A moment later, he took the ball off Trojan guard Glenn Smith, who had started dribbling down the lane.

UCLA held for a last shot, called time with :15 left and designed a play for Miguel. Instead Immel took it down the lane. “He was the man we wanted to shoot,” Hazzard said, “but I thought he’d go to the line and make two.”

He didn’t. The Trojans rebounded and got the ball to Friend, who zipped through the retreating Bruin defense, saw Simpson and put the ball in his hands. The Trojans were the other guys in town no longer.