Miner Leads USC Upset of Stanford

USC Coach George Raveling let out a sigh of relief after the Trojans ended a 10-year losing streak at Stanford, defeating the No. 24 Cardinal, 82-72, Thursday night before 7,083 at Maples Pavilion.

“After coming here and not being able to win for all these years, it’s certainly a feeling of relief to finally win a game,” Raveling said after USC won here for the first time since 1982.

Harold Miner scored 30 points, including 16 in the second half, as the Trojans (12-3, 4-1 in the Pacific 10) won their fourth game in a row. Miner hit 10 of 17 shots--including three three-point shots--made seven of 10 free throws and grabbed 10 rebounds.

“Miner is incredible,” Stanford guard Peter Dukes said. “He’s just incredible. He only missed seven shots.”

Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said the Cardinal did a poor job of checking Miner.

“I don’t think we were aggressive enough on Miner,” Montgomery said. “But when Miner gets the ball and gets into his shooting motion, you’re not going to stop him. He did hit some tough shots.”

Stanford forward Adam Keefe had 28 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Cardinal (11-2, 3-1), which had a five-game winning streak snapped.

“I felt Miner would cancel Keefe out,” Raveling said. “I figured whatever he scored, Miner would cancel those out. Then it would come down to our other guys on the team against their other guys.”

USC did a nice job of defending Keefe in the first half, holding him to eight points. Surprisingly, the Cardinal didn’t try to work the ball inside to Keefe, who took only seven shots in the first 20 minutes.

“We did a job on ourselves,” Montgomery said. “Adam was open in the first half, but we didn’t get him the ball.”

Off to its best start in 50 years, Stanford was looking forward to Saturday’s showdown against No. 2 UCLA, a game that was to match the only two unbeaten teams in the Pacific 10.

However, the Cardinal overlooked USC, getting off to a lethargic start.

“We simply got outplayed tonight,” Montgomery said. “It’s disappointing, because we’ve played so much better than that. SC played a nice game. We got off to a poor start. We didn’t accomplish anything we wanted to offensively or defensively.”

Trailing, 32-19, Stanford went on a 9-0 run late in the first half to cut the deficit to four points on a three-point shot by Dukes, who made four of six three-point shots in the first 20 minutes.

However, Duane Cooper hit a three-point shot with two seconds left to give USC a 35-28 lead at halftime.

“I wanted to get the ball to Harold, but there wasn’t enough time, so I took the shot,” Cooper said.

Stanford outscored the Trojans, 8-2, at the start of the second half to cut the score to 37-36. However, Miner scored eight points as USC went on a 14-4 run to regain command.

Trojan guard Rodney Chatman had 12 points as a reserve, hitting three of four three-point shots, and Cooper had 11 points and four assists.

Dukes was the only other Stanford player besides Keefe who scored in double figures, getting 14 points.

Trojan Notes

USC guard Harold Miner needs 61 points to break Ronnie Coleman’s school scoring mark of 1,727 points. . . . USC, which shot 52%, was the first team to shoot over 50% against the Cardinal this season.