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Trojans’ Orr Shows He Can Do It All : College basketball: He scores 22 points in USC’s 79-65 victory over Washington, but Parker is most impressed with his eight rebounds.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The worst thing a team can do in the Pacific 10 Conference this season is lose at home.

That’s why USC’s 79-65 victory over Washington Saturday before 2,665 at the Sports Arena was so important as the Trojans completed their first weekend home sweep of the season to move back into the conference race.

After defeating Washington State on Thursday, USC cruised behind Lorenzo Orr’s 22 points and eight rebounds to improve to 7-7 overall and 2-2 in the Pac-10.

“Getting a sweep is a big-time confidence builder for us,” said guard Brandon Martin, who made six of eight shots and finished with 14 points. “This gives us momentum going into next week’s road games (at Arizona State and Arizona).”

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For the second consecutive game, USC’s defense set the tone as the Huskies committed 25 turnovers and were outrebounded, 35-28.

“We feel that our offense can score points and that we have enough weapons to throw at people with six guys scoring in double figures,” USC Coach Charlie Parker said. “Even if one guy is off, we still have other guys who can score for us. The problem we’ve been having is physically stopping people and rebounding. It seems like the last two games, we’ve outrebounded two good teams.”

The Trojans, who made 23 of 28 free throws compared to Washington’s eight of 12, turned to Orr to get off to a good start against the Huskies.

Orr, averaging 22.3 points over the last four games, was unstoppable in the first half, scoring 16 of the Trojans’ 33 points as they took an 11-point lead at halftime.

“Lorenzo is shooting well and today he drew a lot of fouls,” Parker said of Orr, who made a career-high 10 free throws and had eight rebounds and two blocked shots to increase his school record to 119. “Most impressive is (Orr’s) rebounding. . . . We’ve talked and told him that if he wants to play at the next level, he has to have a complete game.”

For the third consecutive game, USC came out flat to start the second half as the Huskies closed to within 37-32 with 16:05 remaining. The Trojans responded with a 24-3 run over the next eight minutes to take a 61-35 lead.

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Leading the way for the Trojans were Jaha Wilson, who scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half and finished with eight rebounds, and Martin, who played 25 minutes in his second consecutive game as a reserve.

“We really do have a lot of good players on this team and it’s hard to find minutes for everyone,” said Martin, who had started the first 12 games for the Trojans. “For me, I’m handling it pretty well. I just want to do what’s best for the team and for now my job is to come off the bench.”

Washington (4-8, 0-4), which has lost eight consecutive road games, was led by Bryant Boston’s 21 points, four assists and four steals.

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Trojan Notes

USC will travel to play at Arizona State on Thursday and at Arizona next Saturday. . . . The Trojans are now 52-9 at the Sports Arena since the beginning of the 1991 season. Washington has been allowing opponents only 65.4 points per game this season.

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