Crowd at Top Now Includes Trojans, 84-81

The final minutes looked all too familiar to USC on Thursday night at the Sports Arena. Stanford’s Tim Young was dominating in the absence of Trojan center David Crouse, and Brevin Knight was converting on drive after drive through the USC defense.

But USC showed how far it has come with an 84-81 victory over the No. 16 Cardinal in front of 4,114. This was not the same Trojan team that watched all of the above happen and lost by 15 to Stanford on Jan. 11. It had a now-healthy Rodrick Rhodes and a more confident Stais Boseman.

“It was basically the same scenario [as the first game],” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “But Rod’s presence late in the game helped our offense and when we needed a basket we got one. And we stopped them when we had to.”

USC blew a 14-point lead but with Boseman scoring 23 points and Rhodes 20, the Trojans moved to 7-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference and, coupled with UCLA’s loss to California, into a four-way tie for first with the Bruins, Cal and Arizona.

“That is something I haven’t been able to say in my five years here,” said Crouse, who fouled out with 4:05 left. “I’m going to enjoy it for about one-half hour and then start thinking about Cal [on Saturday].”

UCLA’s loss was announced to the crowd with Rhodes on the line and 1:27 remaining. USC (12-7) had just gone ahead, 76-75, after a three-point basket by Boseman. “When I heard that I knew had to make them,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes made both and USC held on despite making only four of eight free throws in the final minute.

The Trojans held Stanford (13-5, 6-4) to 38% shooting for the game, and prevented the Cardinal from getting a good shot on its last possession, which ended with Knight heaving a shot from the corner as he faded out of bounds.

“From about seven minutes [left] to three minutes [left, we] were basically trading baskets,” Crouse said. “But then we put the clamps on them.

“We didn’t make our free throws down the stretch but it didn’t matter because of our defense.”

For the second time this season, a little-known Stanford reserve victimized the Trojans. Sophomore Arthur Lee, from North Hollywood High, started the game averaging 5.7 points, but he scored 26 Thursday night. In Stanford’s earlier 85-70 victory over USC, David Moseley scored 19 off the bench.

“He was Brevin Knight in the first half,” said Rhodes, who played sparingly in the first meeting because of a knee injury. “Everything we tried to stop Brevin from doing in the first half [Lee] did.”

But Lee scored only nine in the second half--not enough to make up for a quiet performances from Knight (16) and Young (18).

Said Bibby: “[Lee] had it going, but we hoped that because he had played a lot of minutes that he would tire in the end, and that is what happened.”

USC had to be happy with its 43-36 halftime lead, but also disappointed because it could have led by much more. The Trojans were ahead by 14 at one point, thanks to an aggressive defense that held Young and Knight to a combined 10 points and forced four turnovers by the trusty Cardinal point guard.

Stanford missed eight free throws and shot only 34% to USC’s 10-of-12 marksmanship from the line and 55% shooting from the field.

“It was disappointing, discouraging,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “We were just so bad to start the game.”

Knight, because of two early fouls and his ineffectiveness, sat out the final five minutes before the break. Unfortunately for USC, that was when Lee scored most of his 17 points to trim the Trojan lead.

Lee’s total included two free throws one second before the break after a technical foul against USC for having too many men on the court. The bizarre infraction was not brought to the officials’ attention until after two three-point shot attempts by Boseman and a tantrum from Montgomery.

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Pacific 10 Race

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Conf. Overall Team W L W L California 7 3 16 5 Arizona 7 3 14 5 UCLA 7 3 12 7 USC 7 3 12 7 Stanford 6 4 13 5 Washington 5 5 12 6 Oregon 4 6 13 6 Washington State 3 7 11 10 Arizona State 2 8 10 12 Oregon State 2 8 6 13

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THURSDAY’S GAMES USC 84, Stanford 81

California 71, UCLA 68

Oregon St. 61, Washington St. 49

Oregon 69, Washington 59