After 13 Straight Defeats, USC’s Luck Changes : Pollard Makes the Big Baskets in an 84-81 Overtime Win Over Arizona State

Even after 13 consecutive defeats, USC Coach George Raveling had faith in his Trojans.

Raveling’s belief was rewarded when Alan Pollard made a layup with 59 seconds remaining in overtime, lifting the Trojans to an 84-81 victory over Arizona State in a Pacific 10 Conference game Saturday.

“Even when we were down by 14 in the first half, I wasn’t worried because I’ve seen us do that and get back into the ballgame so many times this year,” Raveling said. “If there’s one thing this team has, it’s heart and guts.

“You saw two teams who are at the bottom half of the league playing their hearts out. It’s a tribute to the conference and the coaches that two teams who don’t have a hell of a lot to play for, play this hard to win a game.”

The Trojans (8-17 overall, 1-12 in the Pac-10) overcame a 37-23 deficit late in the first half and forced the overtime on Pollard’s jumper that tied the score, 76-76, with 1:24 left.

Arizona State (12-12, 5-10) took an 81-78 lead 2:06 into overtime as Trent Edwards made a layup and turned it into a three-point play.

After Chris Moore made two free throws with 2:28 left to cut USC’s deficit to 81-80, Pollard put the Trojans ahead to stay. Chris Munk added a dunk at the buzzer.

Anthony Pendleton scored 23 points for USC. Ronnie Coleman added 20, Pollard had 12 and Moore 11.

Edwards scored 28 points for the Sun Devils; Alex Austin added 22, including six three-point shots, and freshman Ron Waller had 10.

“I thought fatigue played a big part at the end because ASU’s shots were falling short,” Raveling said.

“I liked the way we took Austin out of the game in the last 10 minutes. We were able to play the last 5 minutes of regulation and all of the overtime without Ronnie Coleman (who fouled out) and still win the game.”

USC was in its worst losing streak since dropping 16 consecutive games during the 1975-76 and 1976-77 seasons.

“The last win was March 3, 1492,” Raveling quipped. “I thought we were doing penance--that somewhere along the line, I must have committed a grievous sin.

“The players have been unbelievable. I’ve never had a team that stuck together like this. There’s been so many bad things said about them. People were jumping ship on them. I’ll say this--if we’re the worst team in the league, then this must be a hell of a league.”

Arizona State blew a lead of 55-46 5 minutes into the second half, a lead of 73-68 with 4:21 remaining and a lead of 76-71 with 2:05 left in regulation.

Arizona State’s interim coach, Bob Schermerhorn, 2-3 since taking over when Steve Patterson resigned Feb. 4, said his team made too many mistakes.

“Twenty-three turnovers. It’s a telling thing,” Schermerhorn said. “But take nothing away from USC. There were 0-12 coming in here and they held together. It’s a tribute to Coach Raveling and his staff after what they’ve been through. They kept the kids close and they finally won a ballgame. That was my worst fear.”