USC Climbs Out of 22-1 Hole : Trojans: Miner leads rally against Cougars in Pac-10 tournament. Arizona is next.

Harold Miner, USC’s extraordinary guard, showed why he was named the Pacific 10 freshman of the year in the Trojans’ 85-68 victory over Washington State in the first round of the conference tournament Thursday night.

Miner scored 27 points, including 18 in the second half, as the Trojans overcame a 22-1 deficit to win.

Although Miner played well, guard Robert Pack may have been the key to the victory for USC, which outscored the Cougars, 51-31, in the second half.

Pack scored a season-high 24 points and had seven assists. Pack made seven of 13 shots and added eight of 10 free throws.

After shooting poorly in the first half, USC made 19 of 26 shots in the second half. Washington State made eight of 29.

“I don’t know if we were getting better shots. The shots Harold takes, it was like, ‘No, Harold,’ ” USC Coach George Raveling said. “My philosophy on guys who can shoot is, you’ve got to let them take some bad shots to make some good ones.”

“We just had to get it together in the second half,” Pack said. “Our shots didn’t fall in the first half, and we told ourselves in the locker room (at halftime) that we weren’t going to let ourselves lose.

“We showed that we’re not going to give up.”

Pack’s contribution was even more important because forward Ronnie Coleman, the Trojans’ No. 2 scorer this season, had only 12 points. He also had seven rebounds.

The Trojans (12-15) face No. 15 Arizona (21-6) in a second-round game tonight at 7 p.m. The Wildcats, seeded No. 2 in the tournament, defeated the seventh-seeded Trojans by 15 and 25 points this season. Arizona has won nine consecutive games against USC, the last eight by an average margin of 27 points.

The Trojans did a good job Thursday of checking Washington State guard Darryl Woods after he scored 18 points in the first half. He had only six in the second half.

WSU, which lost its last 18 games, ended the season with a 7-26 record.

After beating Washington State, 91-75, last Saturday, USC was so confident before the game that Trojan forward Calvin Banks told a friend, “We’re going to play Arizona tomorrow.”

But for the first 10 minutes, the Trojans looked as if they were set to catch the first plane home instead of advancing to play Arizona, the defending two-time Pac-10 champion.

USC got off to an awful start, missing its first seven shots and giving away eight turnovers as Washington State took a 22-1 lead.

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure we could win the game, but I knew they weren’t going to beat us real bad,” Raveling said after the Trojans made their turnaround. “It was comforting to know that it wasn’t going to be a shutout.”

Miner broke the streak, scoring USC’s first basket with 11:28 remaining. Miner’s basket keyed a 19-4 Trojan spurt that cut the deficit to 26-20 with 7:44 left in the half.

The Trojans went to a three-guard offense and it was effective as Miner had seven points in the run and Pack had eight.

After the Cougars rebuilt the lead to 31-22, the Trojans cut it to 37-34 at halftime, outscoring Washington State, 12-6. Pack scored six consecutive points to open the run, hitting two baskets and a pair of free throws.

Raveling was so displeased with USC’s first-half performance that he kept the team in the locker room for 13 1/2 minutes of the 15-minute intermission.

Miner scored USC’s first eight points of the second half as the Trojans cut the deficit to 43-42. The Trojans took a 44-43 lead with 16:08 left when Coleman made a jump shot.

After the Cougars retook the lead, 48-46, Pack hit a three-point shot and the Trojans never trailed again.

Miner was his usual self.

“I’m real proud of this award because I worked real hard for this,” Miner said. “I’m thankful to Coach Raveling and my teammates for allowing me to grow as a player this season. This past summer I worked hard and prayed, and I felt good things would turn out for me. But I didn’t expect to be the (freshman) player of the year.

Although he was USC’s best offensive player, averaging 20.7 points in breaking the school freshman scoring record, and needs just 14 points to break the Pac-10 freshman scoring mark of 577 set by UCLA’s Don MacLean last season, Miner feels he has to improve his defense next season.

“First I want to work on my defense and my defensive intensity,” Miner said. “Then I’d like to work on my ballhandling so that I can play the point little bit.”

Trojan Notes

UCLA forwards Don MacLean and Trevor Wilson were named to the All-Pac-10 team. Also named: Oregon State guard Gary Payton, California guard Keith Smith and center Brian Hendrick, Oregon guard Terrell Brandon, Arizona forward Jud Buechler, Stanford center Adam Keefe, Washington guard Eldridge Recasner and USC’s Harold Miner. Miner is the second USC player to be named to the all-conference team as a freshman. Cliff Robinson made the team in 1978. . . . Payton was the Pac-10 player of the year and Oregon State’s Jim Anderson was named coach of the year.