Hope Turns to Misery as USC Loses Again : College basketball: Sluggish Stanford holds off Trojans, 90-78, while fighting mental letdown after loss to UCLA.

USC appeared poised to take advantage of sluggish Stanford Thursday night, but instead lost its 10th in a row.

“We had a letdown, but we got away with it,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said after his 19th-ranked Cardinal, 17-6 overall and 8-6 in the Pacific 10, had prevailed, 90-78, despite a poor effort.

“It was very difficult for us to get mentally ready after losing to UCLA (two nights earlier),” Montgomery said. “I was really concerned going into the game, and then we had a poor first half.”

USC Coach Charlie Parker watched his team narrow a 12-point deficit to 67-64 with 6:22 remaining, but the Trojans (7-17, 2-12) could get no closer.

“Stanford has a good, opportunistic young team, and we didn’t execute like we needed to in order to win,” Parker said. “We’re just short on size and talent.”

Lorenzo Orr scored 26 points on 11-for-16 shooting for the Trojans and Jaha Wilson added 14 points. Each pulled down 11 rebounds.

Stanford point guard Brevin Knight just missed becoming the first Pac-10 player to have a quadruple double. He finished with 14 points, a school-record 13 assists, nine rebounds and nine steals. Only nine Pac-10 players have had triple doubles.

“After the UCLA loss, the guys told me I needed to go out and make something happen, so I put extra effort into it tonight,” Knight said.

Stanford led by only 41-38 at halftime over the Trojans.

But the Cardinal perked up in the second half, as center Tim Young scored 12 of his 18 points in the first 10 minutes.

Young had played only eight minutes of the first half after picking up two fouls in the first 2 1/2 minutes.

“Tim’s a fine prospect, but he needs a lot of work on his defense,” Montgomery said. “He tends to pick up fouls too easily.”

David Harbour added 16 points for the Cardinal, and Dion Cross and Andy Poppink had 13 apiece.

Stanford held a 37-25 lead with 6:45 remaining in the half after a 6-0 run, but the Cardinal let control slip away.

The Trojans promptly made an 8-0 run, and Cameron Murray’s three-point shot at the buzzer cut Stanford’s lead to three points at halftime.

The Cardinal hurt itself with poor free-throw shooting in the first half, making six of 16 attempts.