These Trojans Defend

It’s their time now. No more football to compete with (save the latest coaching job openings). From now until March, the USC men’s basketball team has the floor.

And the 20th-ranked Trojans did not slip in the glare of the spotlight, pounding Loyola Marymount, 91-68, Saturday before 2,463 at the Sports Arena.

Best of all, from Coach Henry Bibby’s viewpoint, the 3-0 Trojans could chalk this win up to their defense more than their scoring.

USC pressed and trapped and chased after Loyola the same way it tried to against Bradley and San Diego. But this time the Trojans--whether working in a zone or man-to-man--acted as if they knew what their defensive assignments were instead of guessing.

They kept the Lions’ shooting to 44.8%, forcing 16 turnovers and blocking five shots. Once USC took the lead at 13-11 on a three-pointer by Brandon Granville, the Trojans never gave it back.

“I thought we talked more on defense and we were more aggressive,” Bibby said. “I thought we contained their penetration, which we didn’t do in the previous games.

“I thought we put some pressure on them at times with the full-court press. We didn’t want to come out and sit back defensively as we’ve done in the past. We wanted to pick up the tempo of the game, hoping we could get some deflections and some easy baskets.”

Although the Trojans threatened to get off to another sluggish start, missing their first four shots, Desmon Farmer injected some energy into USC with two baskets, including a three-pointer.

That quick five points got the Trojans rolling. USC had a 47-34 lead at halftime, and an 18-7 spurt to start the second half put the contest to bed.

“USC is a very experienced team,” Loyola Coach Steve Aggers said. “They are a top-25 team and they looked like it tonight. I felt we did well at taking their inside game. But USC shot well on the perimeter. They made 12 of 24 threes, and if you shoot 50% from three-point range you’ll win a lot of games.”

Farmer was one of the long-range snipers, making two of five attempts.

“I tried to produce like [the injured Jeff Trepagnier] would,” said Farmer, who finished with 14 points. “I wanted to keep the tempo going as if he were here and be a good contributor to the team.”

Brian Scalabrine, who played one of his worst games as a Trojan on Tuesday, going scoreless against San Diego, broke loose for a game-high 22 points.

“I thought he played well for us,” Bibby said of Scalabrine. “We need him to play well for us every night for us to be competitive. We don’t struggle as much when he plays well.”

Scalabrine was six of 11 from the field and eight of 10 from the foul line.

“Tonight I played smart. That was it,” he said. “The only difference between this game and any other games is I was more intelligent in my decision making.”

Defense was also on Scalabrine’s mind. “I think at times we played very good defense and our rotations were there. Sometimes they weren’t. But it’s the third game of the year, and we’re getting to where we need to be heading into the Pac-10.”

Granville had 19 points and added nine assists to replace Larry Friend as the team’s career assist leader. Granville has 412 assists; Friend had 409.

“It’s a good feeling to be a career assist leader at a school like USC,” Granville said. “Especially being only a junior.”

Loyola (1-2) was led by junior guard Robert Davis with 21 points.

The Lions, while improved, weren’t able to present USC the kind of challenge Cal State Northridge presented UCLA. The Loyola team USC beat last season, 96-55, was a team in disarray. This time the difference was talent, and the Trojans had more of it.

It remains to be seen whether USC can apply the same kind of clamps to No. 13 Utah next Saturday when the teams meet in the Wooden Classic.

“I haven’t thought about Utah,” Bibby said. “We haven’t seen any film on Utah yet. What we’re doing is looking at where we are and making some adjustments.

“Again, progress is being made. Not the progress that I would like to see, but we are taking little steps.”