USC Is Flattened by Arizona State : Basketball: Sun Devils hurt Trojans’ NCAA chances with 88-83 victory. Miner limited to six-of-22 shooting.

Spurred by upset victories over UCLA and Arizona, a USC fan strolled through the stands during Saturday’s game against Arizona State with a sign offering to purchase tickets to the Final Four.

Talk about premature.

USC hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since 1985 and some overzealous Trojan fan thinks his team is on the road to Indianapolis after beating two of the best teams in the Pacific 10 Conference.

But if USC continues to play as it did in an 88-83 loss to the Sun Devils before 4,058 at the Sports Arena, the Trojans can forget about an NCAA bid.

An eternal optimist, USC Coach George Raveling hasn’t abandoned hope.

“The good thing is that we’ve got enough games left (eight) to secure an NCAA bid,” Raveling said. “I don’t think there’s a coach in the league that ever thought the road to the end of the season was going to be an easy one. There’s too many potholes and we stepped in a pothole today.”

USC (13-7, 4-6), which had won four in a row, came out flat and trailed by 16 points with 6:18 remaining.

Although it appeared that the Trojans were emotionally and physically drained, Raveling offered no excuses.

“Today was a day for ASU,” Raveling said. “That’s the only one way to look at it. They played an outstanding basketball game. They took it to us right from the start.

“It wasn’t an emotional letdown. They just put a good country whipping on us.”

Trojan guard Harold Miner, who had scored a season-high 36 points in Thursday’s 87-83 victory over No. 5 Arizona, missed 16 of 22 shots. Miner, who missed six of eight three-point shots, hit two three-point shots in the final 50 seconds and finished with 17 points.

Matched against ASU guards Dwayne Fontana and Brian Camper, Miner never got untracked.

“I just couldn’t get into sync tonight,” Miner said. “I guess it was typical of the way we played today. It’s no big deal. I’ll come back.”

Arizona State, which employed a slowdown offense in a 20-point loss at UCLA Thursday night, returned to its normal up-tempo style offense and ran away from the Trojans.

UCLA Coach Jim Harrick had criticized ASU’s slowdown tactics, which angered Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder.

“I was upset with Jim Harrick’s comments for three reasons,” Frieder said. “First, he said that you only play that style of game when you do it all season. Well, we did it all season a year ago and he ripped us when we played that style, so he’s very inconsistent.

“Second, that’s the way I felt I had a chance to beat them, because they have a great transition game. And third, he doesn’t have time to worry about Arizona State’s offense. He’d better worry about beating Arizona Sunday. And he’d better worry about having four or five losses in the Pac-10 when he should be a Top Five team in the country.”

With his wife, Janice, tugging at his sleeve in an attempt to mute him, Frieder said, “Janice, I meant to say that. This game is too much and I don’t get into other people’s coaching.”

Raveling praised Frieder’s coaching.

“They went over to UCLA and had to slow the game down, and to turn around and get his team to come back 48 hours later and play an uptempo game is good coaching,” Raveling said. “I couldn’t believe the kind of criticism Frieder got for slowing it down. What was he supposed to do?”

Leading, 43-38, 3:14 into the second half, the Sun Devils scored 11 points in a row to take a 16-point lead and withstood several Trojan runs to maintain the lead until the final six minutes.

Although USC cut it to five when Miner hit his second three-point shot with 19 seconds remaining and Mark Boyd made a follow shot with 11 seconds left, the Trojans couldn’t get any closer.

Freshman forward Jamal Faulkner scored a season-high 25 points and center Isaac Austin added 20 points as the Sun Devils (14-7, 5-6) ended a two-game losing streak.

Forward Ronnie Coleman and guard Robert Pack led the Trojans with 22 points apiece.

Trojan Notes

USC guard Harold Miner, who had made 29 consecutive free throws, missed one with 4:47 left in the first half. . . . Arizona State guard Tarence Wheeler, who hit two three-point shots, surpassed Alex Austin to become the school’s career leader in that category with 138 three-point shots. . . . ASU, which had shot under 35% in three of its past five games, shot 54.2% against the Trojans, the best any team has shot against USC this season.