Trojans Find a Spark

USC wrapped its three-day Hawaii stay in Dickensian fashion.

The Trojans played the worst of halves. They played the best of halves.

Fortunately for No. 13 USC, the best half came in the second half when it rallied from a 20-point deficit to defeat Brigham Young, 70-67, Saturday for third place in the Yahoo! Sports Invitational.

It was certainly the biggest win on the season for USC (9-1). And it would have been great if Coach Henry Bibby had been around to see it.

But Bibby, upset by a foul on Sam Clancy late in the first half, went after official Charlie Range, hollering, “This is what you do to us in the Pac-10!” Range immediately assessed Bibby with a couple of technical fouls and ejected him from the game.

Was Bibby trying to get thrown out? He and Range have had other “discussions” over the years of what is and isn’t a foul. Consider that on Monday the coach got an admonishing letter from Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen over published remarks about the officiating this season.

“I can’t comment on the officiating,” said Bibby, tongue somewhat in cheek. “You never want to get kicked out of a game, but you try to use as many things as you can to get them going.

“It wasn’t calculated to be that way at the time, but looking back on it now. . . .”

Bibby had to do something. The Trojans, trying to bounce back from the physically and emotionally draining 84-83 overtime loss to No. 24 Mississippi on Friday, looked like zombies trying to keep up with the unranked Cougars.

BYU, which dropped to 7-4, was whipping the Trojans in every phase of the game. The Cougars outrebounded USC in the first half, 24-15. The Trojans made eight of 29 shots (27.6%) and missed all nine three-point tries. Brian Scalabrine and Clancy were scoring, but no other Trojan was. It got so bad that, after nine minutes, Bibby had walk-ons Abdullah Elmagbari and Jamie Hooper and reserve Tyler Murphy on the floor with Clancy and Scalabrine.

At that point USC trailed, 23-10. By the time Bibby was excused by Range, and the Cougars made all six free throws, the Trojans were down, 39-21, and finished the half trailing, 41-23.

As he has done several times this season, Bibby saved his choicest words for his team at halftime.

“We had a heart-to-heart talk. I tried to challenge the guys to play,” he said. “We wanted to see what this team was made of. Everything is good when you’re 8-0 and everyone is basically playing well. But what kind of team are we with a little adversity?”

The players got the message--again. And did they ever respond.

After guard Trent Whiting put BYU up, 43-23, with the first shot of the second half, USC went to a full-out trapping defense to speed up the game and force turnovers. The Trojans went on a 13-2 run to cut the lead to 45-36.

BYU didn’t change its game plan even as the Trojans kept reducing the deficit. The Cougars kept passing around the perimeter, running the clock down while waiting for an opening. As the second half went on, BYU got out of its rhythm (making only nine of 21 shots) as USC kept up the pressure.

Not for a second did the Trojans think they would lose.

“It would have been very difficult to get on the plane and come home if we had lost,” said guard Brandon Granville, who had no assists and only four points. “Coming out here, expecting to win the tournament, and then go 1-2? That would have been just like Maui last year. It would have been like we hadn’t gotten any better from last year in a much better tournament.”

USC caught BYU on two free throws by Scalabrine with 3:50 left.. Forty-three seconds later, Clancy’s 12-foot jumper gave the Trojans their first lead--a lead they kept the rest of the game.

“It came from deep down inside. A thing called heart,” said Scalabrine, who, along with Clancy, had 26 points.

“To be down and bounce back, this is an unbelievable win for us. When Coach got kicked out we thought [the officials] were trying to give [BYU] the game. We had to play hard. They couldn’t deny us if we played hard.”