Trojans Go Cold Against Cardinal : College basketball: USC shoots only 38.7% as Stanford keeps longshot NCAA hopes alive with 66-55 victory.

The reality of being a bad-shooting team hit home for USC Thursday night, and it did not feel good.

Before a crowd of 2,689, USC blew an 11-0 lead to start the game by shooting 38.7% from the floor to lose to Stanford, 66-55, at the Sports Arena.

USC shot the ball so poorly that discounting the efforts by Mark Boyd and Lorenzo Orr, who combined to make 15 of 28 shots, the Trojans made only nine of 34 shots.

“This was a game going in that I truly believed we’d win,” USC Coach George Raveling said. “We just had no perimeter offense in this game at all.”

USC’s starting backcourt of Burt Harris and Brandon Martin were the best examples of that. Harris made only two of 12 shots from the field, including none of seven from the three-point line, and Martin made four of 10, missing both three-point attempts.

For the first three minutes, USC played like the team that defeated Arizona State on the road last Saturday, keeping Stanford scoreless while making five of its first six shots.

From there, however, the Trojans (12-11, 5-9 Pacific 10 Conference) made only six of their next 18 attempts as Stanford outscored them, 27-15, to take a 27-26 lead at halftime.

“I really don’t know why, but we just go through periods where we can’t score,” said USC forward Tremayne Anchrum. “We still believe that we can win because we have a talented team. It’s just that we let down at the wrong time.”

It’s this inconsistency that has baffled Raveling all season.

“I have a very hard time reading this team,” Raveling said. “The last couple of years, I knew after the shootaround if we were going to win. We’re a team that has to get sharper fundamentally . . . get smarter and get tougher.”

Stanford, which kept its slim NCAA tournament hopes alive by improving to 7-6 in the Pac-10 and 14-8 overall, gave the Trojans a solid opportunity to get going in the second half with missed shots and turnovers, as USC took a 39-36 lead on a rebound dunk and free throw by Orr with 12:33 remaining.

That’s when the Cardinal bench came to the rescue. Led by Darren Allaway’s nine points, Stanford took a 50-45 led with 4:20 left.

“We were tentative early on,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “We challenged our guys to step up. We played as if we were afraid to make mistakes and you can’t play that way. Our bench saved us and got us back into rhythm.”

Dion Cross led Stanford with 13 points, and freshman point guard Brevin Knight had 12 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.

Boyd, who had been in a two-game scoring slump, led USC with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Orr had 16 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots.

The Stanford bench had 18 points and six rebounds. USC got only three points and four rebounds from its reserves.

So are the Trojans still alive for for a National Invitation Tournament bid?

“I’m probably the wrong guy to ask, we just have to find a way to win our last four games,” Raveling said. “Like Yogi Berra says, ‘You’re not out until you’re out.’ ”