COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURMAMENT : Trojans Try Something New : Midwest Regional: Freshman Tremayne Anchrum comes off the bench to score 16 points and USC rolls over Northeast Louisiana, 84-54. Georgia Tech will be next.

Northeast Louisiana Coach Mike Vining was concerned about stopping USC All-American guard Harold Miner, who averaged 26.7 points to lead the Pacific 10 Conference.

“Nobody in the Pac-10 could stop him and I don’t know if we have enough people to do it,” Vining said before the Indians met the Trojans in an NCAA Midwest Regional first-round game.

Northeast Louisiana did a pretty good job of defending Miner, who had 23 points, but it didn’t contain freshman forward Tremayne Anchrum, who scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds as the eighth-ranked Trojans defeated the Southland Conference champions, 84-54, before 18,333 fans at the Bradley Center Thursday night.

The second-seeded Trojans (24-5) face Georgia Tech (22-11) in a second-round game Saturday at about 4:15 p.m. PST with the winner advancing to the Sweet 16. Georgia Tech defeated Houston, 65-60.

“Saturday’s going to be difficult for us,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “We’ve got to play the Monsters of Peachtree Street and here I am with Mary Poppins’ children. The thing that worries me about Tech is that they’re going to come out Saturday and try to win and I don’t think that’s fair.”

Raveling blacked out one minute into the first half after he got up quickly to yell at center Yamen Sanders. A doctor was summoned to the Trojan bench, but Raveling was fine. He had nothing to worry about as the Indians shot 25.7% in the second half and were outrebounded 41-24.

“After watching Sanders play, hell, you’d black out too,” Raveling said. “I’ve never had it happen before, but I’ve never had a guy that started for me play like that either.”

Anchrum, who scored 24 points in 28 regular-season games, scored 14 points off the bench in the first half as the Trojans took a 39-26 lead at halftime.

“I’d never heard of (Anchrum) until halftime,” Vining said.

Given a chance to play more because Sanders didn’t play well, Anchrum made his first six shots and wound up making seven of eight shots. Anchrum, who outscored Miner by three points in the first half, also had six rebounds as the Trojans outrebounded the Indians, 20-8, in the first half.

Anchrum had success scoring inside because Northeast Louisiana left him open, with the defender assigned to check Anchrum dropping off to double-team Miner.

“We came into this game thinking that if we controlled Miner we’d have a good chance of winning this game,” Northeast Louisiana guard Keith Johnson said. “I don’t think we overlooked Anchrum, but we tried to help out on Miner and he was there for the easy offensive putbacks.”

Northeast Louisiana’s fans taunted Anchrum, 6-4, 230, because of his weight, calling him “Fat Boy” as he shot free throws. But Anchrum had the last laugh as he set a career high.

“It really doesn’t bother me,” Anchrum said. “I hate it when they call me Fat Boy, but I guess they do because I’m 6-4, 230. But I just do what I’ve got to do on the court and that makes up for all the name-calling.”

Anchrum, who hadn’t scored more than five points in a game, said he wasn’t surprised by his offensive outburst.

“Coach told me before the game that Harold would draw a lot of people every time he went to the bucket and my man would drop off me,” Anchrum said. “And I knew that I would get a lot of rebounds.

“This gives me a lot of confidence I needed during the season. I’m glad I got it at tournament time and I hope it continues.”

Miner wasn’t surprised that Anchrum played well.

“I have a lot of confidence in Tremayne,” Miner said. “Tremayne works hard in practice and I always kid him that he’s going to be the next Charles Barkley to keep him going. He showed everyone tonight what kind of potential he has.”

Miner, who missed 20 of 27 shots as Florida State ousted the Trojans, 75-72, in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season, made seven of 13 shots and hit all nine of his free throws. He also had six rebounds.

“I was really proud of Harold,” Raveling said. “There was an obvious temptation for Harold to prove to people who he’s supposed to be. After being named Sports Illustrated player of the year, there’s an obvious temptation to come out and try to live up to that reputation. But what I thought Harold did was just come out and play. I thought he drew the defense to him and gave the ball up. He was the reason a lot of other players enjoyed offensive success tonight, particularly Anchrum.”

Said Miner: “I wasn’t concerned with trying to build up my reputation, because if you don’t win, your reputation isn’t worth anything.”

Leading 19-17, USC outscored Northeast Louisiana, 18-2, to build an 18-point lead in the first half.

“I think we turned it into a one-on-one game,” the Indians’ Louis Davis said. “I think we looked at what Miner was doing and our guys wanted to say, ‘I can do the same.’ His shots were falling and our shots were falling. That spurt was the difference in the game.”

Trojan Notes

USC’s 24 victories ties the school record for one season, set in 1970-71 when the Trojans went 24-2, and tied in 1973-74 when they were 24-5. It was also USC’s first NCAA tournament victory since 1979, ending a string of three consecutive first-round losses. . . . Junior forward Ryan Stuart led Northeast Louisiana (19-10) with 20 points, including 12 in the second half. The Indians, who had a six-game winning streak ended, have never won an NCAA tournament game, going 0-5.

* ALLAN MALAMUD

USC has met the contractual demands of George Raveling, but he has yet to decide whether he will be back as the Trojans’ basketball coach. C8

* MIDWEST REGIONAL

Arkansas scores an emotional victory over Murray State, and Georgia Tech uses an 11-2 run over the final four minutes to rally past Houston. C8