‘Hedake’ Is a Real Pain for the Trojans : College basketball: USC leads by as many as 14 points, but Smith sparks Sun Devils to 87-62 victory at Lyon Center.

If USC was curious why Arizona State guard Stevin Smith is called “Hedake” by his teammates, the Trojans discovered the answer Thursday night.

After watching USC score the first nine points of the game and take an early 14-point lead before a capacity crowd of 2,621 at the Lyon Center, Smith scored a career-high 35 points and dished out six assists to lead the Sun Devils to an 87-62 victory and sent the Trojans and their fans looking for headache relief.

Smith, a 6-foot-2 senior from Dallas, missed five of his first seven shots as USC rode the support of a rare home sellout crowd to lead, 25-11, with nine minutes to play in the first half.

But Smith then made 10 of his next 15 shots, including seven three-pointers.

“I have to credit my teammates because I was taking some shots and they didn’t complain early in the game,” said Smith, whose last-second shot lifted the Sun Devils over California last Saturday. “After I hit a few, it felt like I was in a zone when I can do anything.”

Behind Lorenzo Orr’s 15 points and Mark Boyd’s 10 points and six rebounds, USC shot 66.7% and led, 41-31, at halftime.

“I thought in the first half, we played excellent basketball,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “But, I reminded them it’s a 40-minute game.”

Although Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder told reporters after the game that he was glad to trail by only 10 points going into the second half, his halftime antics helped spark the Sun Devils’ second-half comeback.

“Frieder was all over us at halftime, jumping up and down yelling and hitting blackboards,” Smith said. “We knew we had to come out and just play like we forgot all about the first half.”

After missing all four shots in the first half, Arizona State forward Ron Riley made four of six three-pointers to help the Sun Devils outscore USC, 36-8, over the final 11 minutes of the game.

“Riley knocked a couple down for us when we needed it,” said Frieder, whose team improved to 8-5 overall and 3-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

To go along with their accurate outside shooting, the Sun Devils got more aggressive with their inside defense against Orr and Boyd.

“Once they got the momentum on their side, they fed on that as a team,” said Orr, who scored 20 points. “I noticed in the second half, they doubled down on me a lot harder and I made some mistakes in getting the ball back outside.”

What also hurt the Trojans in the second half was the loss of point guard Burt Harris, who ignited the Trojans with seven points and three assists. Harris, who did the best job defensively against Smith, did not play the final 10 minutes because of severe leg cramps.

USC’s outside shooting did not come to the rescue once Arizona State started to collapse inside. The Trojans made only one of 10 three-point attempts, with their top three-point shooter, Brandon Martin, being held without an attempt.

“We had no offense to respond to their three-point shots,” Raveling said. “In the critical spots when we could make a run, we turned the ball over. We didn’t show a lot of offensive poise and patience down the stretch.”

The Trojans (10-4, 3-2) shot only 29% in the second half and had 22 turnovers in the game.

USC will have to regroup fast because the Trojans play host to Arizona Saturday at the Forum at 1 p.m.