USC Loses and Is Out of It, Right Off the Bat

Let it be duly noted that USC did not go softly into the defeat that made this team the losingest Trojan basketball team and the first one eliminated from the Pacific 10 tournament.

The record will show that USC lost to California, 75-59, at McKale Center Thursday night, and that Cal was the team that advanced to the next round to meet top-ranked Arizona while USC went home with a record of 7-21.

But that was after a full-scale comeback. At least, they went down scrapping.

Behind the uncanny three-point shooting of Cal’s freshman guard, Ryan Drew, the Bears led by as many as 23 points in the first half. Drew made all six of his three-point shots in the first half as the Bears shot 76.2%.

Meanwhile, the Trojans were as cold as the Bears were hot. Which meant the Trojans quickly found themselves in a deep hole.

The Trojans really didn’t spend the first half standing around with gaping mouths watching Drew swish those three-pointers. It only seemed that way.

That they were able to regroup at halftime and to come back to narrow the gap to six points in the final minutes is to their credit.

The Trojans came out pressing in the second half and also playing much tougher defense on Drew, who was 1-4 in the second half and missed three three-point shots. To his 23 first-half points, he added a late-game dunk to finish with 25.

Drew, who earlier in the day had been named to the conference’s all- freshman team, said: “I just got the hot hand, and my teammates were getting me the ball. It seemed like no matter where I was on the floor, it was going down. . . . I used up so much intensity in the first half, I came out a little flat in the second half. But my teammates picked up the slack.”

Cal held on for a heady victory that ended its eight-game losing streak and made its record 9-19.

Of course, the Trojans haven’t exactly been setting the world on fire, either. USC had lost eight straight on the road.

Remember, this was a game between two of the three teams that tied for last place, a game between the eighth- and ninth-seeded teams to determine which would be sacrificed to Arizona’s win column today.

This game could hardly have been called an upset either way. But it goes down, officially, as an upset. It was just the second time in 10 Pac-10 tournament games that a lower-seeded team has beaten its higher-seeded opponent. The other time was seventh-seeded Oregon’s upset of Arizona last season.

Cal Coach Lou Campanelli said: “I can’t tell you how proud I am of this team as a coach, especially having lost to USC twice this season and as late as last Thursday. . . .

“We had a little slippage against their press, but, all in all, we had control of the game. When it came to crunch time, we came through.”

USC was sure to pick up its record 21st defeat sometime during this tournament, but none of the Trojans expected it to be in the first round, against a team of youngsters (two sophomores and three freshmen) it had defeated twice already, a team playing without the injured Matt Beeuwsaert, its top scorer and rebounder.

USC Coach George Raveling said: “We just have to retreat and find some quiet, unemotional moments to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going and how to get going in the direction they hired me to get it going.

“It’s been a disappointing season. It hasn’t been fun for any of us.”

As for what went wrong in the final game, Raveling said: “I think the principal thing is that we were never a cohesive unit. We didn’t play good team defense. We didn’t play good team offense. There isn’t a good, logical reason for it. We just didn’t execute. As a result, we dug ourselves into too deep a hole to climb out of.”

Rich Grande started at point guard in place of Dave Wiltz, who was also held out of the last two regular-season games with a thigh injury. But Wiltz came off the bench to score eight points and also get two assists and five steals.

Junior forward Chris Moore led the Trojans with 16 points.

But not one Trojan was scoring in the opening minutes. They opened the game 0-6, finally scoring on a 7-footer from the right baseline by Moore almost five minutes into the game.

A three-pointer by Grande and two free throws by Moore cut the Bears’ 23- point lead to 18 at halftime, 46-28.

Drew, a freshman from Seattle whose uncle, Gene Conley, played basketball for the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, as well as major league baseball, set a tournament record with his six three-pointers, topping the four by Greg Hill of Washington last year.

Cal can expect to see more fans in the stands today when the hometown team plays. The announced attendance Thursday night was 12,635, a tournament record for a single session. But that was based on the number of tickets distributed. Not everyone showed up.

Washington 96, Arizona State 82--In the second upset of the evening, last-seeded Washington beat seventh-seeded Arizona State to advance to today’s second- round game against Oregon State.

Washington (10-18 overall, 5-13 in the conference) was led by guard Eldridge Recasner, who had 24 points. Arizona State was eliminated with a record of 13-16 overall, 6-13 in the conference.

Pac-10 Notes

Arizona forward Sean Elliott, a junior, was named Pacific 10 basketball player of the year, and his coach, Lute Olson, was named the conference’s coach of the year Thursday. Named to the all-conference team were Pooh Richardson and Trevor Wilson of UCLA, Steve Kerr and Anthony Cook of Arizona, Todd Lichti and Howard Wright of Stanford, Gary Payton of Oregon State, Anthony Taylor of Oregon and Eldridge Recasner of Washington. UCLA guard Gerald Madkins was named to the all-freshman team, along with Ronnie Coleman of USC, Will Brantley of Oregon State, Ryan Drew of California and Mike Hayward of Washington. Hayward was named freshman of the year. . . . Cal’s 68.3% shooting for the game was a Pac-10 tournament record. . . . USC Coach George Raveling, writing in a weekly column, did not project UCLA as a team that would make the 64-team National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament. In fact, he included Oregon State and Stanford with teams “on the bubble” and didn’t even throw the Bruins in with that group.