Trojans Hit Nothing Except Bottom : They Can’t Shoot and Fall Into a Tie for Last Place, 71-47

How soon did USC Coach George Raveling know Sunday’s Clash of the Titans at Washington was not going to be his team’s best day of the season? Minutes before the game when Hec Edmundson Pavilion announcer Lou Gellermann introduced the Trojans and the crowd responded with absolute and complete silence.

“One of my assistant coaches turned to me and said, ‘Jeez, they could at least boo us.’ ”

You would think so. If not then, then certainly after the Trojans’ performance.

Making just 33% of their shots, USC lost their sixth straight road game, 71-47, to the Huskies, a team they beat earlier this season in Los Angeles.

The Trojans’ (6-19 overall, 4-12 in the Pacific 10 Conference) dropped into a tie with the Huskies (8-17, 4-12) for last place.

“There are 14 million Chinese who don’t know these two teams even played,” Raveling said, leaving about a billion people from that country unaccounted for, though it’s a safe bet they were not glued to their television screens watching these teams.

A team that has won just six games all season--only one on the road--obviously has its fair share of low moments. But Sunday’s second half must surely rank with USC’s lowest, even if Raveling wasn’t so sure after the game.

“I don’t know, that’s your guys’ job,” Raveling said. “I just hope you guys do a better job of ranking them than I did of coaching. If you leave me your address, I’ll write you and let you know after I’ve had more time to think about it.”

The Trojans shot just 27% from the field during that half, didn’t score a point until the 12:49 mark and watched as a four-point halftime deficit mushroomed into a 21-point deficit.

And these are not the exactly John Wooden’s 1972 UCLA Bruins the Trojans faced Sunday. Andy Russo’s 1988 Huskies are just two losses away from a school record for defeats (19).

What happened? “I’m telling you, I wish I knew,” said USC’s Alan Pollard, who started the game at center in place of Chris Munk.

Raveling said his decision to start Pollard and Calvin Banks over Munk and Chris Moore was due to a lack of hustle he’d seen in the latter pair. “I always thought you had to earn a starting role,” said Raveling, who told Munk and Moore of the decision just prior to the game.

Leading, 28-24, at halftime, the Huskies scored the first 17 points of the second half to take a commanding 45-24 lead. They extended that lead later to 69-41 late in the half, and were so in control that Russo was able to put walk-on Jeff Watling into the game for just the third time this season.

USC may have ended on the wrong side of the rout, but it certainly began the game in stronger fashion when the Trojans went on a 13-4 scoring run from the tipoff.

“I thought early on we did some good things defensively, “ Raveling said. “But we just could never get our offensive game going.”

Indeed.

No Trojan scored in double figures, a season first. USC was led in the scoring department by Bob Erbst, who came in off the bench to score eight points.

Senior Troy Morrell scored a career-high 16 points in the final home game of his career to lead the Huskies. Morrell did not miss a shot in the game, going 4 for 4 from the field and 5 for 5 from the line in a performance he said was one he’d always dreamed about.

And so the Battle for The Basement continues with this one dubious reward in the balance: The last place team gets placed in the non- Arizona bracket of the upcoming tournament.

Trojan Notes

George Raveling said his decision to start Alan Pollard and Calvin Banks over Chris Munk and Chris Moore was due to a lack of hustle he’d seen in the latter pair. “I always thought you had to earn a starting role,” said Raveling, who told Munk and Moore of the decision just prior to the game, and was unsure when they would return to the starting five. . . . Former Seattle SuperSonic Fred Brown hit 16 shots from three-point range during a halftime exhibition for Easter Seals.