Winning to Avoid Losing : USC-UCLA: Trojans don’t want five-game streak to become six. Bruins seek first victory in series since 1986.

A victory by UCLA over USC today at the Coliseum won’t send the Bruins to the Rose Bowl.

And a victory by USC won’t erase the sting of a lost season.

But neither team will be lacking incentive when the Bruins and Trojans play for the 61st time, with USC holding a 34-19-7 lead in a series that dates to 1929.

For Coach Terry Donahue’s Bruins, it’s an opportunity to end a four-game winless streak since 1986 against USC, which is 3-0-1 against UCLA under Coach Larry Smith.

For the Trojans, it’s a chance to avoid the ignominy of a six-game losing streak, end the season with a smile and send UCLA to the John Hancock Bowl with unpleasant memories, if not lingering doubts about its strength.

It is not, however, a chance to salvage the season.

“One game doesn’t make a season, but what it can do is, you can finish on a good note,” Smith said. “People can leave here with a good feeling about themselves and (know) that we accomplished a major achievement. . . .

“It still comes back to playing for a lot of pride.

“But would (a victory over UCLA) make our season successful? No. Any way you crack it up, it’s still a losing season.”

USC is 3-7 overall, 2-5 and eighth in the Pacific 10 Conference and will finish the season with a losing record for only the second time in 30 years.

A sixth consecutive loss would be a school record for the Trojans, who have lost more than seven games in a season only once in 98 seasons. They were 1-9 in 1957, when eight of their best players were ineligible because of conference sanctions for taking under-the-table payments from school officials.

UCLA has rebounded from two losing seasons to a 7-3 record. The Bruins are 5-2 in the Pac-10, tied for third place, and will play Illinois at El Paso on New Year’s Eve in their first postseason appearance in three seasons.

But of the 80 or so players who will suit up for UCLA today, only Arnold Ale has played on a team that beat USC.

A junior inside linebacker, Ale was a freshman at Notre Dame when the Irish defeated USC, 27-10, in 1988.

“I’d like to hope that our team would be capable of not going another year without beating Southern Cal,” Donahue said. “Our seniors would certainly like to win that game before they leave.”

They are favored, by five points.

UCLA has reversed its fortune by improving its defense and its running game.

In their 45-42 season-ending loss to USC last year at the Rose Bowl, the Bruins relied almost exclusively on quarterback Tommy Maddox, who set school records with 409 yards passing and 445 yards in total offense.

Maddox threw three touchdown passes and ran for another score, but he also threw three interceptions, two of which went for touchdowns.

Maddox has enjoyed another productive season as a sophomore--he ranks fourth in the Pac-10 in passing efficiency, second in total offense--but UCLA is far from being a one-man team.

Junior tailback Kevin Williams has started only one game, but has rushed for 958 yards and has developed into the Bruins’ most consistent big-play running threat since 1987, when Gaston Green ran for 1,098 yards. Junior split end Sean LaChapelle leads the Pac-10 with 63 receptions for 893 yards and 11 touchdowns.

UCLA ranks third in the Pac-10 in rushing offense, third in passing offense and second in total offense.

“If you’re not sound, they can score 40 or 50 points on you very easily,” Smith said of the Bruins.

The Trojans have given up an average of 384.8 yards and rank seventh in the Pac-10 in total defense. USC has given up an average of 189.8 yards on the ground, almost twice UCLA’s average.

But USC defeated seventh-ranked Penn State, 21-10; stayed close in a 14-3 loss to second-ranked Washington and, had it not been for a questionable call or two, might have reversed the score in a 24-20 loss to 17th-ranked Notre Dame.

A similar effort against UCLA would not be a surprise.

Trojan-Bruin Notes

USC Coach Larry Smith won’t announce his starting quarterback--Reggie Perry or Rob Johnson--until today. . . . Estrus Crayton will start at tailback for USC for the first time. Neither UCLA nor USC has beaten a Pac-10 team with an overall record better than .500. . . . USC is 1-4 at the Coliseum this season, 1-6-1 since Oct. 6, 1990. . . . UCLA hasn’t beaten USC at the Coliseum since 1983. . . . USC and UCLA have split their last 11 meetings, including a 10-10 tie at the Coliseum in 1989.