Nearly a Miner Record : College basketball: With Block’s mark of 45 points in view, USC guard gets 37 and sits much of the second half of 90-73 victory over Oregon State.

USC’s student cheering section rose as one to salute Harold Miner after the Trojan guard executed a 360-degree breakaway slam dunk worthy of Michael Jordan in the first half of USC’s 90-73 victory over Oregon State Thursday night at the Sports Arena.

The fans bowed to honor Miner, who scored 37 points, including 30 in the first half. It was the most points he has scored in a half.

After Miner’s first-half scoring spree, it seemed that he would easily break the school single-game scoring mark of 45 points, set by John Block against Washington in 1966.

Miner began the second half by scoring USC’s first five points in the opening 35 seconds, but he scored only one more basket afterward because the Trojans didn’t run as many plays for him in the second half as they did in the first.

Miner, who played 19 minutes in the first half, played only 13 minutes in the second half because he was bothered by tendinitis in his left knee.

“Sometimes when you have a big first half like that you kind of get out of it and relax a little bit,” Miner said. “I was just looking for everybody else (in the second half).”

Was Miner disappointed that he didn’t surpass Block’s record?

“I don’t really care about records,” Miner said. “Records aren’t a big deal to me. I just want to win. That’s all that matters.”

It was the second consecutive game in which Miner has scored more than 35 points. He had 39 in the Trojans’ five-point victory at Arizona State last Sunday. He has scored 76 points in his last two games, the most by any Trojan in back-to-back games.

Miner made eight of 12 shots in the first half, including all six of his three-point shots and all eight of his free throws. But he made only two of five shots in the second half. He also had eight rebounds and two assists.

“We probably should have run a little more offense for him in the second half than we did,” Raveling said.

Oregon State Coach Jim Anderson, who called Miner the Michael Jordan of the Pac-10, marveled at Miner’s performance.

“It was almost flawless,” Anderson said. “He can create things, and then he gets to the free throw line a lot. He draws traffic, is very strong and then passes off to (Phil) Glenn or (Duane) Cooper. He’s pretty hard to stop from getting open.”

Oregon State, which opened in a man-to-man defense, switched to a box-and-one against Miner in the first half. The move didn’t seem to bother Miner.

“The thing that I continue to marvel at is that people still play the box-and-one against him,” Raveling said. “For some reason he plays better when they play a box-and-one against him. The one thing that makes a box-and-one effective is when there’s an element of surprise and when you haven’t prepared for it. But we practice against a box-and-one a couple times a week.”

Miner scored 13 consecutive points midway through the first half, hitting four three-point shots, an 18-foot jump shot and two free throws, as USC built a 16-point first-half lead.

USC (10-3, 2-1) led Oregon State (9-2, 1-2) by as many as 26 points in the second half.

Trojan Notes

Forward Mark Boyd sat out the game with a strained ligament in his right ankle. Freshman Lorenzo Orr started in place of Boyd. . . . The Trojans set a school record with 15 three-point shots, breaking the old mark of 13, set against North Carolina in 1988. USC also set a school record by hitting all 15 of of its free throws. The previous mark of 96.7% (29-30) was set against Washington in 1964. . . . Harold Miner, who entered the game fifth in the nation in scoring, is averaging 27.4 points. Miner and John Block shared the former USC school record of most points in two consecutive games. Miner scored 75 points in back-to-back games at the start of the season, scoring 32 against Tennessee-Martin and 43 at Nebraska. . . . Center Scott Haskin led Oregon State with 17 points.