Arizona Pulls Away, Beats USC, 90-75 : Basketball: Trojans get 19 points from Miner in first half and trail by only one at the intermission.

USC Coach George Raveling had a premonition that the Trojans would upset No. 18 Arizona Thursday night at the Sports Arena.

“You’ll probably think I’m crazy, but to be perfectly honest I felt we were going to beat them,” Raveling said.

Raveling’s prediction didn’t look too bad after the first half, when the Trojans trailed, 45-44.

Freshman guard Harold Miner played an extraordinary first half, scoring 19 points. Miner hit five three-point shots.

But the Wildcats went to a box-and-one defense to slow Miner in the second half, holding him to seven points and USC folded, losing 90-75, before 5,043 fans.

“They were pressuring me and reaching in and it was hard to get loose,” Miner said. “Their defense kind of wore me down.”

Guard Matt Muehlebach did a superb job of defending Miner in the second half, forcing him to miss five of eight shots.

“I just played Miner man-to-man,” Muehlebach said. “After he hit about five shots in a row he was hot. It’s a little easier to stay with a guy like Miner in a box and one than it is when everybody is playing man.”

Arizona Coach Lute Olson praised Muehlebach’s defense.

“I thought Matt did a good job against Miner,” Olson said. “He keyed the defensive effort, but it was the help of the others in the box that supported it.

“Miner just flat out lit us up in the first half. He’s so explosive. He didn’t always have a clear shot in the first half, but he gets up so quickly and they were falling for him.”

The shots fell for Arizona forward Jud Buechler in the second half. Buechler made seven of 14 shots from the field and seven of eight free throws to finish with 22 points. He also had 10 rebounds as Arizona (9-2 overall, 4-2 in the Pac-10) won its eighth consecutive game.

“Buechler’s the glue that holds Arizona together,” Raveling said.

Forward Sean Rooks added 18 points off the bench, and forward Wayne Womack had 13.

Although Miner was averaging 24 points in his last four games, skeptics pointed out that the Trojans had played inferior opponents such as Central Connecticut State.

But Miner proved that he can score against good teams as the Trojans outplayed Arizona in the first half. Miner made six of 11 shots in the half.

After Miner scored 14 of the Trojans first 20 points, including three three-pointers, Arizona paid Miner the ultimate compliment, going to a box and one defense against him.

The Trojans lost Ronnie Coleman when he picked up his third foul with 13:26 left in the first half. But center Chris Munk picked up the slack, scoring 20 points, including 14 in the first half. Munk hit four of five shots from the floor and all six of his free throws.

Munk hit two free throws with 40 seconds left to give USC a 44-43 lead. But the Wildcats worked for the last shot as Rooks fed Buechler for a layup at the buzzer to give the Wildcats a 45-44 lead at intermission.

Womack led the Wildcats with 11 points in the first half. Brian Williams added nine points.

USC had trouble getting the ball to Miner in the first nine minutes of the second half as Arizona took a 66-54 lead.

“We just seemed to hit a lull in the second half,” Raveling said. “We’re not at the point yet where we can match talent with talent. We have to play a cerebral game.

“When we hit that lull in the last two games that’s all the opponents needed. And when Coleman doesn’t have a good game that puts pressure on Miner to score.”

Muehlebach did a superb job of checking Miner. But the Trojans didn’t do a very good job of setting any screens for Miner. Miner finally made his first shot of the second half with 10:19 remaining.

USC Notes

The Trojans play Arizona State Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Lyon Center on the USC campus. All 2,200 tickets for the game have been sold. The game was moved from the Sports Arena due to a conflict with an ice show.

“It will be my first sellout since I’ve been at SC,” Coach George Raveling said. “After the game we should take the floor and cut it up and sell it. As far as I’m concerned, they can move all of them there for the rest of the season. It wouldn’t bother me at all. It would help our recruiting. I’d tell our recruits come to USC we play before sellout crowds, standing room only every night.”

Arizona Coach Bill Frieder isn’t happy with the switch to the Lyon Center. “That’s something that could never ever happen in the Big Ten,” the former Michigan coach said. “Playing them in the Lyon Center is going to be a tough, tough situation and certainly to their advantage.”