USC Regroups in Time to Beat Portland : Pilots’ Rally Falls Short as Trojans Hold On to Gain Third Win, 81-61

USC’s basketball team, accustomed to failure, had difficulty handling success Monday night against the University of Portland.

The Trojans seemed listless after building a 20-point first-half lead against the Pilots, who rallied to cut the deficit to 7 points in the second half before falling apart and losing, 81-61.

“We started off really well, and then after we got that big lead we thought it was going to be a joy ride or we were down in Disneyland or something,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “We’d move out to a lead then relax, move out to a lead and then relax. I’m too old for this kind of stuff.

“Our mentality on the floor was ‘they can’t beat us.’ We can’t afford that kind of luxury. We lost some of our sense of purpose out there, and it became more of a playground contest than an intercollegiate contest. But they are still babies finding their way into adulthood. We’re still spoon feeding them, hoping to have a nice team by January.”

USC recovered from its second-half lapse to outscore Portland, 17-4, and gain its third victory without a loss in front of 1,244 at the Sports Arena.

“I have mixed emotions about the game,” Raveling said. “Maybe with 6 or 7 hours of sleep I’ll think differently. Maybe it’s because we’re playing so many games back-to-back. We played hard but this was the first game that we didn’t have cohesiveness. It was like five guys with their own agenda.”

The Trojans conclude their season-opening 4-game home stand tonight against United States International University, which opened its season with an 82-78 victory over the Air Force Academy Saturday and routed Maryland Eastern Shores Monday night.

“I won’t get much sleep tonight,” Raveling said. “Nobody knows anything about them (USIU). They’re coming off a big win over Air Force and they’re a running pressure team.”

Although the Trojans had difficulty putting away Portland, they had some bright moments.

Forward Ronnie Coleman, USC’s most valuable player last season, scored 21 points and had a career-high 15 rebounds. It was the first time that he has been in double figures in points and rebounds in his 2-year college career.

Coleman said the Trojans are more cohesive than last season, when USC lost 21 of 28 games.

“We’re playing better, but we’re not going to get complacent,” Coleman said.

Guard Anthony Pendleton also played well for the Trojans, scoring 14 points in 29 minutes. Pendleton was one of the nation’s best high school players in 1986, but he had didn’t play well in his first season at USC after sitting out a year because of academic problems.

“Offensively, Anthony Pendleton is doing some good things out there,” Raveling said. “But I always expect more from him. He’s showing greater variety in getting back to the confidence he had in high school.”

Portland (0-2), which lost by 47-points to Oregon State in its season opener Saturday night, has 9 consecutive losses, counting last season.

Guard Josh Lowery scored 20 points to lead Portland.

Larry Steele, a former National Basketball Assn. player with the Trail Blazers who is in his second season as Pilot coach, sees improvement despite the big losses. Portland, 6-22 last season, can’t get much worse.

“We got it going in the middle of the first half when we started to play better defense and we looked more like a ballclub from that point on,” Steele said. “I was really pleased with the last 30 minutes. It’s the type of game we feel very good about. We started the game with two freshman and a sophomore and two juniors and four out of the first seven guys haven’t played Division I basketball.

“We will be better than last year before the year’s over. But it’s hard to say that now.”