USC Turns In Another ‘40s Performance in 52-40 Loss to Oregon

It didn’t seem possible that USC would score fewer points against Oregon Thursday night at the Sports Arena than it did in losing to Colorado State, 46-41, Monday night.

But the Trojans, who opened an early 11-0 lead over the Ducks, went into reverse gear for 11 minutes 13 seconds in the second half--not scoring a point.

As a result, Oregon won the Pacific 10 game, 52-40. It was the conference opener for the Ducks, while the Trojans are 1-2 in league play.

USC is definitely locked into the 40-point range while playing basketball that reminds one of games in the 1940s.

A little Glenn Miller music, please.

However, the Trojans weren’t trying to rub time off the 45-second clock in the closing minutes of Thursday night’s game.

Their shots, from outside or close in, just wouldn’t fall.

By contrast, in 1967, USC lost to UCLA, 40-35, in overtime, when the Trojans were deliberately stalling.

USC center Ronnie Coleman made a lay-up with 12:37 left to provide the Trojans with a 34-30 lead. The Trojans wouldn’t score again until guard Anthony Pendleton sank a three-point basket with 1:24 to play.

It reduced Oregon’s lead to seven points, 44-37, and it easily held up as Pendleton’s three-point basket with 58 seconds left was the extent of USC’s scoring until the buzzer.

USC is making a habit of going dead in the water in the closing minutes of a game. The Trojans went the final 6:43 without making a basket (only two free throws) while losing to Colorado State.

The Trojans’ frustration was exemplified with 3:28 remaining when guard Rich Grande missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and forward Bob Erbst couldn’t get an easy follow shot to drop.

Now for the negative statistics. USC shot only 23.3% in the second half and 30% for the game. Even though Oregon won by 12 points, the Ducks were hardly an offensive force.

How often does a team shoot only 38.5% in the second half and win as easily as Oregon did?

Moreover, Oregon’s star guard, Anthony Taylor, had an off night. He scored only 12 points on 5-of-18 shooting--and he brought a 22.2-point scoring average into the game.

“I’m gravely disappointed in our performance tonight,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “I had every reason to believe we would play much better than we played. The longer the game went on, the flatter we seemed to get. The last six or seven minutes we had no emotion at all.”

While USC was floundering offensively, two starters, Coleman and Chris Moore, were on the bench each with four fouls.

Moore came back with 8:03 to play, and Coleman was on the floor a few minutes later only to foul out.

“With Moore and Coleman out, that took away our our inside game,” Raveling said. “Another aspect was that we were never able to establish a good perimeter game with our guards.”

Brad Winslow missed his four shots, and Grande was 1 for 3, a three-point basket. Against Colorado State, they were a combined 1 for 10.

The Trojans showed signs of disintegrating in the final minutes of the first half. After an 11-0 start, they were still in command with a 24-13 lead with 3:48 remaining before the break.

The Ducks then scored six straight points to reduce USC’s halftime lead to 24-19.

Oregon, with three junior college players in the starting lineup, got its first lead at 30-28 early in the second half.

The Trojans (3-9) regained the lead, only to disappear offensively for more than 11 minutes.

So what happened to the Trojans?

“It was simple,” Erbst said. “We just went away from our game plan and stopped pushing it inside. We had been very successful working inside in the first half. We had 13 post feeds in the first half but just 4 in the second half.”

With Taylor not much of a factor, center Brett Coffey picked up the slack in the closing minutes and wound up with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting.

Raveling, looking for a positive note, said the Trojans will welcome back center Chris Munk for Saturday afternoon’s game against Oregon State at Loyola Marymount. He’ll end an academic suspension of six games.