Trojans Maintain Their Edge

SAN DIEGO — USC got it right this time.

After taking a 19-point first-half lead only to see host San Diego State close within six at halftime, the Trojans neither panicked nor suffered flashbacks of their second-half collapse against Long Beach State last week.

Instead the Trojans finished what they started, hammering out an 87-54 victory over San Diego State before 3,402 at Cox Arena.

A career high 24 points by Brandon Granville (18 in the second half) plus 21 points and a career-high 11 rebounds by Brian Scalabrine moved the Trojans back to the positive side on their season log, raising their record to 6-5.

It was still far from perfect. The Trojans had 17 turnovers and a nasty five-minute stretch in the middle of the first half when a 28-9 lead became 35-28 because of the offensive spark that former Orange County high school standout Jeffrey Berokoff brought from the San Diego State bench. He wound up the Aztecs’ leading scorer with 11 points.

But USC had a definite edge in athleticism on San Diego State (2-5) and it showed in every key statistic. The Trojans outrebounded the Aztecs, 40-29, held them to 39% shooting, forced 24 turnovers and had 17 steals and six blocks.

The game became easy at the end, but Coach Henry Bibby felt it should have been easy from the start.

“We’ll take the win but I thought we were terrible early,” Bibby said. “We had one guy playing well in the first half, and that was Brian. In the second half, Brandon and Sam Clancy [who had 18 points and nine rebounds], stepped it up.

“I keep saying it, but it’s true; we have to have at least four guys bring their ‘A’ games every night. But we’re still a young team feeling our way. We don’t have a bunch of seniors who have played four years. “

Unlike other games when the Trojans let early leads slip away, Bibby didn’t yell in the locker room at halftime (although his assistants did).

But Bibby’s silence was effective.

“Even though he was calm you could tell he was disappointed,” Granville said. “That said even more to us.”

Granville took it upon himself to make sure the Trojans did not let the Aztecs think about an upset. At the start of the second half, the 5-foot-9 sophomore guard sandwiched three three-pointers around two baskets by Scalabrine to move the Trojans from their 38-32 halftime lead to a more comfortable 48-35 margin. USC wound up outscoring San Diego State 19-3 to start the second half, then followed up with another 13-6 run for a 64-41 lead at the 11:12 mark.

Coach Steve Fisher, in his first season with the Aztecs, was reminded again how much work he faces to make San Diego State a contender in the Mountain West Conference, let alone on a national scale.

“We talked about how proud we were with the way we fought back at the end of the first half to cut the lead and have some confidence going into halftime,” Fisher said. “Then we poured it down the drain in the first five or six minutes of the second half.”