Trojans Bad News for Bears

Streaks, like records, are made to be broken.

And No. 21 USC was determined to end a six-game losing streak to California.

On Saturday the Trojans didn’t merely end the streak, they stomped on it with an 80-66 victory before 11,340 at Haas Pavilion.

USC (16-5, 6-3) played almost flawless basketball for 33 minutes to get within two games of first-place Stanford in the Pacific 10 Conference race. Scoring, defense, intensity, athleticism--you name it and the Trojans had it.

USC got the points it expected from Sam Clancy, who had 25, and Brian Scalabrine, who had 15. But the star of the game was Jeff Trepagnier, who had his best game this season--19 points (becoming the 24th Trojan to score 1,000 points in his career), a game-high 11 rebounds, four assists and five steals. Defensively he negated Cal point guard Shantay Legans’ ability to penetrate the lane and get the ball to the other Bears for easy baskets.

And Trepagnier--who sat out much of the season because of a stress facture in his foot and a suspension because of an NCAA investigation--made the play of the year for the Trojans.

With 6:59 to play, David Bluthenthal lofted a three-point shot from the corner that hit the heel of the basket and bounced straight up. Trepagnier soared over three people, including Clancy, who thought he had a rebound, and threw down a one-handed slam.

“That’s probably the highest I’ve ever jumped for a basket,” said the 6-4 Trepagnier, who has leaped 7-1 for the Trojans’ track and field team. “The timing was perfect. And I had to get one of those this game; the team said I couldn’t jump anymore, and before the game I told them I was going to come out and get a big dunk.”

“I was in awe and I don’t get awed too many times,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “That’s the highest I’ve ever seen anybody jump, and I played in the NBA with Dr. J.”

The rest of the Trojans rattled the the Bears (15-6, 6-3) into 20 turnovers. USC turned a 39-27 halftime lead into a 57-30 spread by holding Cal to one basket in the first 8:03 of the second half while going on an 18-3 run.

USC grudgingly conceded Cal forward Sean Lampley his game-high 29 points while making sure no other Bear could deliver critical points. Legans had 15, but most of those came in the final seven minutes while Cal was frantically trying to get close.

“I thought we played the defense today that we really needed to play,” Bibby said. “You’re not going to stop Sean Lampley too many times; what we wanted to do was not let other people get going. We knew their bench gives them about 25 points a game, and we didn’t want those other guys to get those points.

“The last two games we’ve played have been really good. We’ve stepped up a level. I think we’ve bought into what we want to do. And it’s nice to have Jeff back. Each game he’s getting a little better, getting into the flow, and not forcing things. He made the difference tonight.”

The six-game skid wasn’t the only streak USC ended. Cal had won 14 consecutive home games, and was 11-0 at home this season before getting thumped by the Trojans. And USC defeated Cal on its home floor for the first time since 1992.

“We needed to win this game,” Bibby said. “Since I’ve been coaching, Cal had won 11 of the last 12 against us. We were due.”

What was harder for Cal Coach Ben Braun was watching a Bear team that could no wrong against UCLA on Thursday do so little right Saturday.

“We told the team that no matter what USC did against Stanford on Thursday they would come in here today with an edge,” Braun said. “They had one and we didn’t match it. If we had played the whole 40 minutes the way we did the last seven, I would have been happy.

“To not play the same kind of game we did against UCLA is understandable. But there’s no excuse not to have the same kind of effort. There’s no excuse to let USC go to the free-throw line 36 times and for us to have that many turnovers against a team not pressing us and trying to run out the clock.”