Trojans Don’t Die, They Fade Away

After a 37-point loss to seventh-ranked Stanford on Thursday, USC faced another behemoth front line, and for a while the Trojans stood up to the California Golden Bears.

Sophomore Jarvis Turner was USC’s enforcer Saturday, scoring 14 first-half points, mostly on layups and short jump shots, against the likes of 6-foot-11 forward Sean Marks and 7-0 center Francisco Elson.

But in the second half, Cal started getting easy baskets after finding the seams in USC’s pressure defense, the Trojans forgot how to protect the basketball and Cal scored a 92-82 Pacific 10 Conference victory at the Oakland Arena before 8,550.

“When we get into a jam, people on this team tend to try and do too much,” said Turner, who had a big first half with 12 points and finished with 17.

“There are no Michael Jordans on this team. We just have to be patient and play as a team.”

USC, 6-10 overall, 2-4 in the Pac-10, had taken a 39-38 lead early in the second half, but Cal used a 22-5 run to take a 60-44 lead with 10:27 to play.

The key play during that stretch came when the Bears (6-7, 2-3) scored five points on one possession.

With Cal leading, 43-39, guard Thomas Kilgore, the game’s leading scorer with 19 points, scored on a layup and was fouled by Turner. Kilgore’s free throw clanked off the rim but was rebounded by Cal forward Michael Gill, who made a three-point shot and put the Bears up, 48-39.

Gill scored 14 points in the second half, nine during Cal’s run, and he finished with a career-high 18 points.

The Bears seem to be moving in the right direction after a slow start. They almost upset UCLA on Thursday, losing, 74-73, and held Stanford to a 10-point victory last week, no small feat considering the Cardinal’s average margin of victory is more than 20 points.

“Cal has improved drastically from a month ago,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “They are a team that is going to be difficult to contend with.”

In the second half, Marks, who has a thigh bruise, played only two minutes, but Cal reloaded with Elson and USC fumbled its opportunities to score.

Elson scored eight consecutive points in the second half, most of them uncontested dunks or layups, and the reserve center finished with a season-high 10 points.

Many of those easy baskets were the result of Cal’s sharp passing. The Bears, who had been averaging 11.5 assists a game, had a season-high 25 against USC.

“It was probably our best game of the year in terms of moving the ball,” Cal Coach Ben Braun said. “It’s outstanding, 25 assists is more than we get in four or five games.”

USC relied on a plodding half-court offense in the second half and turned the ball over 12 times, a total of 19 times for the game.

Gary Johnson had 18 points and Adam Spanich 16 for the Trojans.

“I thought we bounced back well off the loss to Stanford,” Bibby said. “We weren’t down. We were ready to play. But we had only three players who played well. We don’t have a lot of talent or size, so we need six or seven to play well to win.”