USC Erases 19-Point Deficit, Wins in Overtime

George Raveling can’t explain it, but he’ll take it.

Ivan Harris’ only basket of the game with six seconds left in overtime Saturday broke a tie and lifted Raveling’s USC Trojans an 81-76 victory over Tennessee--which once led by 19 points.

“It was just one of those days when the Lord looked upon us gently,” Raveling said. “Don’t ask me to explain what happened.

“I told the kids during a couple of the second-half timeouts that they had lost their momentum and their enthusiasm.

“It got down to a contest of one-on-one. That gave us a chance to get back into the ballgame, and we hustled our tails off.”

After Harris’ basket, Rich Grande added a free throw for USC (5-5) when Tennessee (5-2) was hit with two technical fouls, and Derrick Dowell added two more free throws before it was over.

Tennessee Coach Don DeVoe said a USC surge midway through the second half was too much for his team to overcome.

“We just didn’t have the poise to hold onto the ball,” DeVoe said. “When they started taking the ball away from us, like they did in the second half, things started going their way.”

Tennessee built a 45-28 halftime lead and seemed to have the game well in hand until a dunk by Dowell with 11:42 left launched a 13-point burst by the Trojans, who caught up at 70-70 at the end of regulation time.

Dowell scored 30 points, center Rod Keller added 15 points and 6 rebounds, and Grande had 13 points.

Tony White scored 39 points for Tennessee, including three three-point field goals. Forward Dyron Nix added 21 points and 8 rebounds for Tennessee.