Practices Pay Off for USC : Trojans: They beat Cal, 85-76, after putting in extra work during two days off in the Bay Area.

With two days off in the Bay Area after Thursday night’s loss at Stanford, USC killed time by practicing twice a day in preparation for Sunday’s game against California at Harmon Arena.

“I was very concerned about the players sitting around and their minds being focused on a lot of things other than trying to beat Cal,” Coach George Raveling explained. “This was a game we had to win.”

And win the Trojans did, 85-76, in front of 6,578.

Said Raveling: “I told the kids in the dressing room, ‘I know you’re mad as hell at me, but it paid off.’ ”

USC kept alive its hopes for a bid to the NCAA tournament, improving to 14-8 overall and 5-7 in the Pacific 10 Conference before flying home to Los Angeles, where it will play four of its last six games.

The Trojans are tied for eighth place in the Pac-10, but Raveling likes their chances. They are only two games out of second place, and two of their last four games are against Washington, which is last.

“I think we’re in great position,” Raveling said.

Guards Harold Miner, Robert Pack, Duane Cooper and Phil Glenn helped put them there, combining for 63 points, including career highs of 15 by Cooper and 11 by Glenn, who made the most of his 15 minutes of playing time.

The Trojans made a season-high nine three-point shots, all but one by Cooper and Glenn, who were a combined eight for 11.

Cooper made five of six three-point shots, including two in a row midway through the second half after Cal (11-12, 7-7) had overcome an 11-point deficit by outscoring USC, 15-4, to pull even at 57-57.

After he threw in the second from the left corner in front of the Cal student section, Cooper let out a yelp.

“I didn’t say anything,” he said. “I was just screaming.”

USC’s lead was 63-57 and Cal would never again catch up.

“I really got on him after the Stanford game because they left him open and he wouldn’t shoot the ball,” Raveling said. “I think the fact that I told him I was going to take him out if he didn’t shoot them took some of the pressure off him because he figured he didn’t have anything to lose. If he missed them, what the hell? The coach told him to shoot them.”

Cooper made another three-point shot with 4:30 left, increasing the Trojans’ lead to 74-67, but USC went to their leading scorer, the cold-shooting Miner, down the stretch.

Miner made only seven of 21 shots, but he made two in the last 2:20, including a 15-foot jump shot in traffic that beat the shot clock by five seconds and gave the Trojans an 80-76 lead with 59 seconds to play.

“I thought Harold got a little too conservative there in the latter part of the second half,” Raveling said of the slumping Miner, who led USC with 20 points but has made only 21 of 63 shots in the Trojans’ past three games.

“I called him over to the bench and told him, ‘Son, if we’re going to win this basketball game, your mentality has got to change. You’ve got to think a lot more aggressively.’ ”

Miner’s shot started a game-ending 7-0 run for USC.

On Cal’s next possession, Cooper made a critical defensive play, tying up Billy Dreher, who led the Bears with 24 points.

The possession arrow was pointed toward the Trojans’ basket.

“I just didn’t want him to score any more points,” Cooper said of Dreher, who six for 11 on three-point shots. “I said to myself, ‘He’s not going to score.’ I didn’t want him to get the ball, but he got it, so I had to do something about it.”

Pack, who scored 17 points and had 10 assists, made five of six free throws in the last 42 seconds, sealing the victory.

The Trojans’ hopes lived.

“The thing that scares the life out of me is that the league is so competitive, we might end up with only two teams going to the (NCAA) tournament,” Raveling said. “Because of the way the rest of us are whipping up on each other, there may not be any survivors.”

For now, though, count USC among the survivors.