USC Falls, Even With Sky-High Effort

Up in the high country, up in the thin air, all of Jeff Trepagnier’s soaring dunks and acrobatic rebounds could not keep the USC basketball season from crashing down.

On a night when the defense evaporated down the stretch, one man wasn’t enough to keep the Trojans aloft.

In the end, the team and its high-flying guard came falling back to earth, letting a big lead and their season slip away, losing 81-77 to Wyoming in a first-round National Invitation Tournament game Wednesday night at Arena-Auditorium.

“I was just trying to keep us in the game,” Trepagnier said. “A rebound, a tip jam, anything to keep us going.”

His 24 points and 17 rebounds couldn’t compensate for USC’s cold shooting in the final minutes. Nor could he fend off a relentless Wyoming effort in the second half that saw the Cowboys (18-9) outscore the Trojans 50-36.

Wyoming was led by center Ugo Udezue, who started the second half by making fade-away jump shots along the baseline, one after another, en route a game-high 28 points.

“That kind of sparked us,” Wyoming Coach Steve McClain said. “When he started hitting those shots, all our shots started going down.”

With the crowd of 6,613 sounding twice as large, USC (15-13) got antsy. The Trojans starting missing shots and making turnovers. With the score 61-61, Trepagnier drove for another dunk but was called for charging.

From there, Wyoming had its running game kick into gear. The Cowboys finished the game converting 22 turnovers into 17 points.

“Basically we beat ourselves,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “We had the game under control in the first half.”

The defensive toughness that had helped the Trojans turn their season around and gain an NIT berth fell by the wayside. So did the team’s good play in the first half.

USC jumped to an 11-0 lead as Brian Scalabrine worked the inside, scoring from short range on his way to 15 points. Trepagnier scored on alley-oops and put-backs. He rose above two and three opponents at a time to grab rebounds.

And the Wyoming fans, who came early to heckle USC during warmups, stayed in their seats as the Cowboys missed eight consecutive shots before guard Chris McMillian made a layup.

But USC could not put Wyoming away and the Cowboys had to feel lucky being down 41-31 at halftime.

“It felt like we were down about 30,” McClain said. The coach told his team: “If we go out and fight and play hard, we have a chance to win this game.”

The Trojans, meanwhile, were telling themselves they had to play hard for another 20 minutes. But they couldn’t seem to do that.

Maybe it was the altitude. A sign outside the visitor’s locker room says: “Elevation 7,220 ft. . . . How’s your oxygen?”

Maybe it was the fact that USC’s outside shooters, Elias Ayuso and Adam Spanich, shot a combined three for 18.

It certainly didn’t help that Wyoming made 27 of 35 free throws while USC only shot 15, making 10. The difference in free throws attempted was inflated by USC’s intentional fouls late in the game, but the Trojans weren’t looking for an excuse.

Ayuso, a senior, sensed USC had wasted Trepagnier’s extraordinary performance.

“We can’t rely on one person,” Ayuso said. “We didn’t come out aggressive enough in the second half. It’s very, very disappointing.”

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* Box score, Page 13