USC Gambles, UNLV Can’t Make the Point

The USC Trojans figured this game would be a measuring stick, a chance to gauge themselves against a quality opponent early in the season.

They measured up, if only barely.

After opening a wide lead, USC held on through a sometimes hard-fought and sometimes plain sloppy second half Friday night to defeat Nevada Las Vegas, 71-68, before 16,348 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

USC (2-0) won in small but crucial ways.

With senior Adam Spanich making key jump shots.

With sophomore Brian Scalabrine setting solid picks and grabbing rebounds.

And with freshman point guard Brandon Granville making free throws down the stretch.

“They responded well,” Coach Henry Bibby said “They did things with good basketball instincts.”

Or, as Spanich explained: “I was just focusing on the offense, you know, just trying to get it together.”

Neither of these teams had been tested so far this season. USC cruised in its 101-54 victory over San Diego State earlier this week. The Rebels, ranked as high as 25th in preseason polls, led by as many as 59 points in a season-opening 103-56 victory over Sacred Heart and had almost as easy a time defeating Troy State, 95-58.

Like USC, they had succeeded in forcing turnovers and keeping their opponents around 30% shooting from the field.

But in this game, the Trojans uncovered a fatal weakness: UNLV has no outside shooters.

So, in stark contrast to the opener, the Trojans gave up their pressing defense in favor of a tight zone, packing the lane against UNLV’s big man, Kaspars Kambala, and daring his teammates to shoot the ball.

Time and again, the UNLV guards found themselves alone at the three-point line.

Time and again, they missed.

Meanwhile, USC pushed the ball upcourt on offense, creating inside shots for their big men or driving to the basket and kicking it back outside to the guards. Elias Ayuso, who scored a team-high 16 points, made a three-point shot. When Jarvis Turner dunked to finish a fastbreak midway through the half, the Trojans led, 23-6.

But UNLV was able to creep back into the game by turning up the defensive heat, turning the game into a back-and-forth affair with plenty of missed shots and turnovers on each side.

With UNLV guard Brian Keefe making a pair of shots from the top of the key and forward Kevin Simmons driving the baseline for a basket just before the buzzer, USC’s halftime lead was cut to 36-26.

The second half became a test of nerves. Neither team could put together more than a few minutes of solid basketball at a time.

The last time these two teams played, at the Sports Arena last December, it was the Trojans who stumbled in the game’s final minutes, losing, 82-72. This time, in crunch time, it was the Rebels who stumbled.

Kambala committed a costly offensive foul. Shawn Marion, who scored most of his 14 points in the second half, turned the ball over.

But, most importantly, UNLV shot only 32% from the floor.

That left the door open for the young Trojans to make their key plays. Scalabrine, the junior college transfer who has taken over at center, had 15 points, nine rebounds and many more big plays in the lane.

He also held Kambala to three points, well below his 21-point average.

“He totally took Kaspars Kambala out of the game,” Spanich said. “That’s something we didn’t have last year.”

And they didn’t have Granville, who showed poise against the press in the final minutes and coolly put the game away from the free-throw line in the last 1:12.

It was a matter of measuring up.

“I just couldn’t let my teammates down after we had that lead,” Granville said. “I felt confident we were the better team.”