In the End, USC Has Moore, 74-68 : Trojans’ Only Senior Starter Keys Win Over Delaware

USC Coach George Raveling pulled senior forward Chris Moore aside during a timeout late in the second half of the Trojan men’s basketball team’s season opener against Delaware Friday afternoon.

Raveling’s new-look Trojans were playing a lot like the awful old-look Trojans, who set a school record by losing 21 of 28 games last season, and the coach attempted to get it under control during a timeout with 5 minutes 12 seconds left.

“One of the things I said to Chris was, ‘Now’s the time that you’ve got to take control of the game,’ ” Raveling said. “And I told him that it didn’t necessarily mean that he had to score, but he just had to do whatever he thought he had to do to get us in a position to win.”

Moore, USC’s only senior starter, responded to Raveling’s challenge by blocking two shots and making a key steal down the stretch as the Trojans rallied from a five-point halftime deficit to defeat the Blue Hens, 74-68, before an announced crowd of 2,857 fans at the Sports Arena, which was as deserted as a car wash on a rainy day.

“I felt I had to go out and do something, because I wasn’t doing anything for a whole period of time,” said Moore, who was hampered by early foul trouble. “The first thing I thought about was just going out and getting the guys together and playing good aggressive defense. I said, ‘It’s time to play.’ ”

Moore, who led the Trojans with 19 points, scored 6 of USC’s final 10 points to break a 64-64 deadlock in the final 3 minutes.

Moore scored four straight points as USC cooked the Blue Hens with an 8-0 blitz. He started the spurt by sinking a pair of free throws with 3 minutes remaining, and he added a fast-break lay-in with 2:32 left.

After Delaware rallied to cut it to 72-68, Moore blocked a shot by forward Mark Murray, who had a team-high 17 points, with 35 seconds left that would have pulled the Blue Hens to within a basket. On USC’s ensuing possession, Moore hit two free throws with 13 seconds left to ice the win.

“My offense wasn’t keying in that great, so I said I was just going to key in on my defense, and I came up with two blocks and a steal,” Moore said.

The Trojans, who play Howard tonight at 6, have a lot of mistakes to correct.

USC, which averaged 20.9 turnovers a game last season, had 11 turnovers in the first half and wound up with 18, and that figure may have been a bit low. The Trojans shot free throws as if they were blindfolded, going 16-24 at the line.

And USC had problems holding on to a lead. The Trojans, who built an early 23-17 lead, were outscored, 18-7, in the final 6 minutes of the opening half.

“To be honest with you, I thought we would play a little better than we played,” Raveling said. “I thought we really played tense in the first half. We shot 60% and outscored them from the field, but yet we kept turning the ball over.

“We’ve still got a sizable amount of work to do. But I try to stay patient and understanding, because this is a team that has been a little bit snake-bitten, and they’re still coming off some hard times.”

Raveling, who tried to play up the positive aspects of the game, was pleased that the Trojans maintained their poise in crunch time. They were crunched in similar situations last season.

“The thing I wanted to see coming down to the last 5 minutes was how they would respond to adversity,” Raveling said. “I wanted to see if they were going to play to win or if they were going to play to keep from getting beat, and I thought the big highlight to me was that they played to win coming down the stretch.”

Raveling was also happy with the play of guard Anthony Pendleton, who scored 18 points. Pendleton seemed tentative in the first half, hitting just 1 of 4 shots. But he exploded for 16 points in the second half.

Reserve forward Calvin Banks also bailed out the Trojans after starting forward Ronnie Coleman and center Chris Munk got into early foul trouble. Banks scored 8 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and passed off for 2 assists.

Coleman, USC’s top scorer last season, scored 12 points, but he only had 3 points in the second half. Munk had a team-high 11 rebounds to go along with his 4 points.