Payton Dazzling With 58 as USC Falls in Overtime

Gary Payton, Oregon State’s All-American point guard, is ending his extraordinary career with a flourish.

Playing in his second-to-last home game, Payton scored 58 points as the No. 17 Beavers defeated USC, 98-94, in overtime Thursday night at Gill Coliseum.

It was the second-highest single-game scoring performance in Pacific 10 Conference history. Lew Alcindor of UCLA scored 61 points in a game against Washington State in 1967.

“It was one of the greatest one-man performances I’ve ever seen in this league in 15 years, be it (Bill) Walton or (Kareem) Abdul-Jabbar,” USC Coach George Raveling said of Payton’s performance. “I know this, 30 years from now when my grandson asks me about the greatest players ever, I’m going to be able to tell him, ‘You know son, on a rainy night in Corvallis I saw a little ol’ kid score 58.’ And he’ll say, ‘How big was he?’ And I’ll say, ‘About knee-high to a grasshopper.’ And he’ll say, ‘He got 58?’ And I’ll say, ‘Yeah, it was only because the horn blew.’ ”

After scoring 18 points in the first half, Payton scored 34 in the second half and added six points in the five-minute overtime period.

“Everybody was struggling and they decided to give me the ball more often,” Payton said.

Payton made 22 of 38 shots from the floor, including 15 of 20 in the second half. He hit 13 of 16 free throws and had six rebounds, four steals and a season-low two assists.

Was this Payton’s best game?

“Not at all,” Payton said. “I think I should have had a better all-around game.”

USC guard Robert Pack, who tried to check Payton for much of the game, said it was frustrating.

“I felt I did a pretty good job against him, but every time I did something well he came back with something great,” Pack said. “It’s easy to get frustrated when you’re guarding him.”

But despite Payton’s performance, the Trojans had a chance to beat the Beavers.

Trailing 94-90, USC cut it to two points with 44 seconds left after guard Harold Miner sank two free throws.

But Miner made a freshman mistake on the ensuing possession, intentionally fouling Oregon State guard Charles McKinney with 35 seconds left. McKinney made both free throws to give the Beavers a four-point lead and Oregon State retained possession.

“It was obvious that it was an intentional foul,” Miner said. “I should have made it look a little better, like I was trying to make a steal. I take the blame for that. It was all my fault.”

McKinney sank two more foul shots after he was fouled by Phil Glenn with 23 seconds left to seal the win. Miner hit a follow shot at the buzzer for the final margin.

Miner led the Trojans with 27 points. Forward Ronnie Coleman added 24 and Pack had 22.

Trailing 86-83 with 11 seconds left in regulation, it appeared that the Trojans had lost the game.

But Glenn made a three-point shot with three seconds left to send the game into overtime. Glenn was an unlikely hero. He had missed 13 consecutive shots since he scored a basket in a game against Northern Arizona two months ago.

The Trojans played their strangest half of basketball of the season, building a 22-point lead 10 minutes into the game. They nearly blew it all before taking a 47-35 lead at intermission.

Leading 9-6, USC outscored the Beavers, 25-6, to build a 34-12 lead with 9:41 remaining. USC, which made 15 of its first 19 shots, did little wrong in building its lead. But Oregon State blitzed USC, 19-1, to close to within four points at 35-31 with 4:12 remaining. The Trojans went 6:11 without scoring as the Beavers got back into the game.

Trojan Notes

Gary Payton’s 58 points was the most ever scored against USC. Center Lew Alcindor of UCLA scored 56 in a 1966 game against the Trojans. It was also an Oregon State record, surpassing a 48-point performance by Mel Counts against Louisiana State in 1963 and Payton in December against Loyola Marymount. Payton also broke the OSU career record of 2,022 points set by center Steve Johnson. Payton has 2,080 points with three regular-season games left. USC, which dropped its third consecutive game, fell to 9-14 overall, 4-11 in the Pac-10, Oregon State is 20-4 and 13-2. . . . After shooting just .361 in the first half, Oregon State shot .568 in the second half. Said OSU Coach Jim Anderson: “It seems that when we start off shooting poorly our whole game falls apart and we tuck our heads in like a turtle.” . . . USC guard Harold Miner needs eight points to break Tom Lewis’ USC freshman scoring record of 475 points.