Mills Leaves Another Notch in L.A. : USC: His 28 points and 13 rebounds help No. 20 Arizona end the Trojans’ 14-game home winning streak, 81-73.

Arizona forward Chris Mills wanted to complete his final college L.A. homecoming in a special way, and he did exactly that with 28 points and 13 rebounds during the Wildcats’ 81-73 victory over USC before 5,536 at the Forum on Saturday.

After scoring 27 points during Arizona’s Pacific 10 Conference-opening victory over UCLA on Thursday night, Mills’ all-around performance against USC helped end the Trojans’ 14-game home winning streak.

Mills, a 6-foot-6 senior from Fairfax High, not only scored and rebounded for the 20th-ranked Wildcats (7-2). He also provided leadership when USC opened a seven-point lead early in the second half.

“I thought Mills just played an outstanding game,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “(Mills) is doing more things than he did last year. It seems that he has greater focus now, where he is not only scoring, but he’s also rebounding and hustling.”

Even though Arizona had a size advantage inside with 7-foot Ed Stokes, 6-7 Ray Owes and Mills, USC gave the Wildcats all they could handle with its small three-guard lineup.

Behind 6-3 guard Rodney Chatman, who came off the bench to score 18 points, USC led, 39-36, at halftime.

“SC came out on fire,” said Mills, who made nine of 17 shots and also had five assists. “We had guys running out on them, but their three-point shooters kept hitting.”

An early key for the Trojans was their ability to get open for shots while neutralizing Arizona’s power inside.

Despite having no player able to guard Mills one on one, USC had success in denying Arizona’s other big men easy scoring opportunities. During the first half, Owes and Stokes combined for only four points and four rebounds.

“Everybody thinks that since we got big guys inside that we’d always have an advantage,” Arizona guard Damon Stoudamire said. “But they gave us problems with their quickness and shooting ability outside.”

Behind seven quick points by guard Dwayne Hackett, USC also started the second half fast, opening a 53-46 lead. Arizona Coach Lute Olson moved Mills outside and turned inside to Stokes.

“We started to switch better on defense and we also went to a quicker lineup,” Mills said. “We just kept our intensity going, and I felt that at one point they would crack.”

With Stokes, who played at Playa del Rey St. Bernard High, scoring eight points and Mills making a three-point shot, Arizona opened a 10-point lead with 6:25 remaining in the game. From there, frustration took over for the Trojans.

Instead of going exclusively to the three-point shot, USC went inside to Lorenzo Orr, who missed several open shots close to the basket.

“Coming down the stretch, I thought the key area was that we missed too many quality shots,” Raveling said.

Said Orr, who finished with 11 points off the bench: “I’ll take a lot of the responsibility because I had a lot of opportunities, but I just couldn’t get the shots to fall.”

The closest USC would get was seven points in the final minutes, as Arizona’s experience and Mills were too much.

“You’ve got to keep playing and make every possession count,” Olson said. “Stokes stepped up in the middle and made his presence known. The key was we played each possession with enthusiasm on both ends of the court.”

USC (8-3, 1-1) was led by Chatman’s 18 points and Phil Glenn’s 14 points and seven rebounds.

The game was played at the Forum because of a weekend ice show at the Sports Arena.