Trojans Hit Bottom Against Wildcats : College basketball: No. 15 Arizona’s 94-61 victory becomes frustrated USC’s biggest loss in physical contest.

USC’s season to forget added a new chapter Thursday night as No. 15 Arizona handed the Trojans their worst loss of the season, 94-61, before a sellout McKale Center crowd of 13,974.

After winning 10 of its first 12 games, USC has now lost eight of nine to drop to 11-10 overall and 4-8 in the Pac-10.

The bad news for the Trojans is that their next four opponents--Arizona State, Stanford, California and UCLA--have already defeated USC this season by an average of 18 points.

“At this point, I think that our losses show our inexperience, lack of confidence, and in some cases lack of knowledge of what to do out there,” said guard Burt Harris, who led the Trojans with 16 points. “As a team, we just have to do a lot of soul searching.”

Arizona (20-4, 9-3) exposed all of USC’s shortcomings in outrebounding, outhustling and outshooting the Trojans after spotting them an early eight-point lead.

For the first five minutes, USC played like a team that had nothing to lose in rushing to a 12-4 lead, thanks to two three-point baskets by Harris. On defense, the Trojans aggressively forced Arizona into missing four of its first five shots and two turnovers.

“I think that we kind of caught them sleeping,” Harris said. “Then, they realized what was going on and stopped making silly mistakes.”

Arizona, 104-3 at home since 1987, responded to outscore the Trojans, 34-14, over the final 14:39 of the first half. The Wildcats ended up shooting 47% in taking a 38-26 halftime lead, with guards Khalid Reeves and Damon Stoudamire combining for 14 points despite making only six of 16 field goals.

Reeves and Stoudamire then buried the Trojans, combining for 10 consecutive points in the first two minutes of the second half.

“SC came out and did an excellent job early but I think our depth wore them down and got us back into the game,” Arizona Coach Lute Olson said. “Then, we came and put them away early in the second half.”

With USC trailing by 20 points, the game got physical, as both teams made their share of hard fouls. The contact reached its peak at the 15:05 mark when USC’s Stais Boseman and Arizona’s Joe McLean were ejected for flagrant fouls after a loose-ball struggle.

“The USC players were fouling hard and a lot, so it was real emotional out there,” said Reeves, who led the Wildcats with 21 points. “When other teams are throwing elbows, you get frustrated. You just have to talk to the refs and have them watch out for it.”

USC senior Mark Boyd suffered from physical play, going scoreless by missing two field goal attempts in 15 minutes due to foul trouble. It was the first time Boyd, who had scored in 94 consecutive games, was held without a point since his freshman year against California in 1991.

“Boyd’s fouls were ill-advised because his first three happened 20 feet out on the perimeter,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “It might have been frustration from a trying season.”

The Wildcats had four players score in double figures, with Stoudamire scoring 12 with 11 assists.

USC will now try to regroup against Arizona State Saturday.

“This has been a difficult season for me as a coach,” Raveling said. “I don’t think our goal is to win. Our goal is to just play competitive college basketball.”