USC Rallies for 66-62 Win Over Arizona State : First Pac-10 Victory of the Season for Trojans Leaves Sun Devils in the Cellar

In the season-ending Pacific 10 basketball tournament, the 10th, or last-place team, will play the seventh-place team in the first round.

As of now, that dubious distinction goes to Arizona State as USC rallied in the second half to beat the Sun Devils, 66-62, Saturday afternoon in a confrontation between cellar teams looking for their first conference win.

“I didn’t tell our kids we were in last place before the game,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “I didn’t want to scare the hell out of them.”

So the Trojans are now 6-8 overall and 1-5 in the Pac-10. The Sun Devils dropped to 4-8 and 0-4.

The Trojans were struggling at halftime. They trailed, 40-29, had committed 15 turnovers and were shooting only 36.4% from the field.

Arizona State had a comfortable 55-43 lead seven minutes into the second half before USC made its move.

“The key was our defense and our ability to attack their press,” Raveling said.

The Trojans outscored the Sun Devils, 16-3, took the lead at 59-58 with 4:43 left, lost it and then won the game on a combination of clutch defense and ASU ball handling errors.

Arizona State led, 62-59, with 2:25 remaining before USC forward Derrick Dowell scored on a follow shot.

Then, ASU guard Steve Beck lost the ball, USC guard Brad Winslow ended up with it and was fouled. He made both free throws on a one-and-one with 35 seconds left and then came up with a game-saving defensive play.

The ball went inside to ASU forward Alex Austin, and Winslow tipped the ball away to teammate Rich Grande.

“I just slapped at the ball, made a clean hit and got it to Rich,” Winslow said.

Grande was then fouled and made both free throws on a one-and-one with 20 seconds to play.

The Sun Devils, now trailing 65-62, still had a chance to send the game into overtime on a three-point shot, but they never got the opportunity.

Guard Tyrone Mitchell’s pass was too high for guard Bobby Thompson to handle and the ball sailed out of bounds.

Grande then made another free throw, and the Trojans had their first conference win.

It’s fortunate for USC that Grande was accurate from the foul line, because he has been in a shooting slump, a season-long affliction for the Trojans.

Grande was only 1 for 10 from the field Saturday and is 3 for 26 in the last three games.

The Trojans shot 33% and 28%, respectively, in losing to Stanford and Arizona, and they weren’t much better Saturday, improving to 39.7%.

“It’s good to win when you shoot as poorly as we did, especially from the outside,” Raveling said. “I never felt we were out of it. It wasn’t like the Arizona game Thursday night (USC lost, 78-44). The flood gates opened and Moses couldn’t have stopped it.”

Arizona State is a guard-oriented team and the outcome might have been different if Arthur Thomas hadn’t left the game with an injury with 5:51 remaining.

Thomas scored a career-high 26 points against USC here last year and had 14 points at halftime Saturday.

Then, when the game was on the line, he tried to steal the ball from USC guard Ivan Harris and, in the scramble, he jammed the big toe on his left foot. To add insult to injury, he was cited for fouling Harris. Arizona State had a 58-57 lead at the time.

“I couldn’t believe that they called a foul on me,” said the 5-foot, 9-inch Thomas. “I had just stolen the ball from him (Harris) and he fell across my leg. I thought he had broken it.”

Thomas spent the last five minutes of the game stretched out on on a chair on the sideline while occasionally peeking at the scoreboard.

Said Raveling: “I really couldn’t tell about that call, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if it went against Ivan. However, there were worse calls than that in the game.”

With Thomas sidelined, guard Steve Beck, who is averaging 20 points a game, was in control of the offense.

Raveling had been harassing him with a box-and-one offense, with Harris, Grande and Ruben Goodsell alternately tracking him.

“We also double-teamed him, so he’d give up the ball,” Raveling said. “We took our chances that the other four guys wouldn’t beat us.”

Indeed, ASU’s offense was shut down in the last 10 minutes of the game. The Sun Devils got only one field goal goal and scored only five points during this stretch.

Winslow, who had been in a shooting slump like Grande, came out of it. He scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half and made two three-point baskets in two attempts while the Trojans were catching up.

Center Rod Keller contributed 11 points and 11 rebounds, Dowell had 14 points and freshman forward Bob Erbst, who made only 1 of 7 shots in the first half, wound up with 10 points.

“I was missing easy tipin shots in the first half. I was soft inside and insipid,” Erbst said. “I didn’t feel we were out of it at halftime. I felt if we put more defensive pressure on them, they would fold. I wanted to play stronger inside the paint and they (ASU) didn’t get much (points) inside.”

Since USC still can’t rely on its shooting, defense was the determining factor before a small crowd of 3,646 at the University Activity Center and a regional television audience.

“We had to win. We were desperate,” Raveling said, “and we did more pressing than we usually do. And we were successful against a quicker team.”

Raveling then smiled and said: “It’s a major miracle, but we’re now going home for five straight games.”

Since Dec. 13, USC has been home for only two games, and one, against California, was played at Loyola Marymount.