Ducks Make Task Tougher for USC

It was a game they had to have. A game they muddled through for nearly 30 minutes, then fought for like junkyard dogs for the final 10 minutes.

In the end, however, Saturday’s game against Oregon got away from the USC Trojans. The Ducks exited the Sports Arena with an 80-77 victory before 4,355, and the Trojans’ hopes for an NCAA at-large berth may have flown back to Eugene, Ore., with them.

USC came into this weekend’s Pacific 10 Conference series with Oregon State and Oregon believing it needed to win five of its last six games to get the NCAA tournament selection committee’s attention. But with Saturday’s setback, USC will have to win all four remaining games to reach that goal--starting with No. 1 Stanford in Palo Alto on Thursday.

“It was our goal to get five wins, because we felt with 11 conference wins we’re definitely in,” Trojan guard Brandon Granville said. “But we’re not counting ourselves out of anything, going to Stanford. If we get Sam [Clancy] back that will definitely help us.”

Said USC Coach Henry Bibby: “We have four games left and who knows what will happen. We can go get four wins and maybe have a shot.”

The Ducks improved to 19-7, 10-5 in the Pac-10, swept the season series with USC, and strengthened their hold on third place in the conference. The win was even bigger considering the Ducks lost leading scorer A.D. Smith five minutes into the game.

Smith was going up for a rebound when he was inadvertently hit in the nose by a teammate’s elbow. He hit his head on the floor, and was kept out the rest of the game as a precaution after possibly sustaining a concussion.

USC (14-12, 7-7) wasted a career-high 29 points by Brian Scalabrine (23 in the second half) and 24 points by David Bluthenthal. Each had 10 rebounds.

The Trojans missed a chance to tie Arizona State, which lost to Arizona, for fourth place.

Worst of all, they once again have to think about what might have been against the Ducks.

When the teams played in Eugene on Jan. 27, USC was down by a point but had the ball with seven seconds left. The Trojans, however, were unable to get off a shot before time expired.

On Saturday, Jeff Trepagnier (eight points) tied the score at 74 on a free throw with 1:10 to play. But Oregon guard Alex Scales--who led all scorers with 30 points on 11-of-16 shooting--sank a 15-footer with 44.9 seconds to play to give the Ducks the lead for good.

Scales’ big game marked the most points scored by an individual against USC since Arizona State’s Bobby Lazor had 30 in last season’s regular-season finale.

On the Trojans’ next possession, Frederick Jones stole the ball from Trepagnier with 28 seconds to play. Eight seconds later the Trojans fouled Darius Wright (17 points), who made both foul shots to put Oregon ahead by four.

Scalabrine managed a three-point play to bring USC within one, and the Trojans had a golden chance to steal the game when Scales fumbled the ball out of bounds under the USC basket with seven seconds left.

But Scalabrine fell backward as the ball was being passed in to him. The Ducks’ Julius Hicks retrieved the ball and was fouled. He made both free throws with 5.2 seconds to play.

Granville’s desperation three-point shot bounced off the rim as the horn sounded to end the game.

“The play was for Scalabrine to pop outside then go inside to Bluthenthal so he could post up and get fouled,” Bibby said. “Or if they switched up like they did, Bluthenthal would be open inside.”

“I think I slipped,” Scalabrine said. “I wasn’t looking for a foul, because the refs aren’t really going to call one at that time unless you earn it.”

The Trojans looked for an early emotional lift when Clancy came out in uniform and participated in some of the team’s pregame warm-up drills. Clancy was the team’s leading scorer before sustaining a broken foot against Arizona State Jan. 20.