USC Runs Confidence Game on Washington

After USC’s third consecutive lopsided victory, this time an 87-61 rout of Washington on Saturday before 4,418 at the Sports Arena, the 20th-ranked Trojans might be finding their stride.

Coach Henry Bibby hopes so, but he isn’t ready to fully believe what he has seen.

“I don’t know, we’ve been so up and down,” Bibby said. “We have played well the last two games. We’ll see if we’re building some kind of consistency.

“But these have been the most consistent games we have played. So hopefully it’s changing from what it has been.”

USC will have much better indication of this trend when the Trojans face UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday.

Still, the Trojan confidence is at a high after shooting down the Huskies.

USC made its first seven shots, went on to make 17 of its first 18 attempts, and shot 75% for their biggest first half of the season (55 points). USC would shoot 57% for the game (33 of 58) and led by as many 32 points in the second half before Bibby let the dogs out.

The win, the fourth in a row for USC against Washington, raised the Trojans’ record to 12-2 and 2-0 after the first weekend of Pacific 10 Conference play. The Huskies, losing their fourth in a row, slipped to 6-8, 0-2.

Will Perkins led Washington with 12 points.

“It’s good we can blow a team out, because that’s something we haven’t been doing,” said Brandon Granville, who had 13 points and six assists in 21 minutes. “The teams we’re supposed to beat, we haven’t been beating them the way we should. Tonight shows we’re making progress and getting better.”

Adding more insult to the Huskies was the fact that USC began the game with a very altered lineup.

Bibby did not start Granville, Sam Clancy and Brian Scalabrine, because all three were late for their Friday bed check at the team hotel. Also unavailable were Nate Hair (stomach flu) and Jeff Trepagnier because of the left ankle he injured Thursday against Washington State. Trepagnier is expected to play against UCLA.

Nevertheless, the lineup of Robert Hutchinson, Kostas Charissis and Jarvis Turner--who joined regular starters David Bluthenthal and Desmon Farmer--got USC off to a 19-11 lead before Clancy, Granville and Scalabrine entered the game at the 14:24 mark.

“Maybe that’s the lineup I should use from now on,” said Bibby, with a slight smile. Then he turned serious.

“My concern was not tonight’s game, but the other games we’re going to play. We had to set the stage for what we want them to do, not from tonight, but from tonight on.”

USC had no trouble with the present.

Bluthenthal, who made 10 of 13 shots, tied his career high for three-pointers with five--in the first half. He would score 21 points on eight-of-nine shooting in the first half, and went on to score a game-high 25.

“I guess I was in a zone,” said Bluthenthal, who also led USC in rebounds with seven. “But I felt I had to step up tonight. We have a bunch of guys who can score 25.”

But hot hands were the norm Saturday. Clancy was six for 10 and scored 15 points. Scalabrine also had 15 points, making five of 10 shots.

“We have a lot of guys on this team who can shoot the ball,” Granville said. “Even our big guys, including Sam, even though he doesn’t really take threes. But you can’t live and die by the three.”

USC lived large Saturday, making 10 of 22 from three-point range.

“The guys who did start the game set the tone, making a lot of shots and being aggressive on defense,” Granville said. “When me and Brian and Sam got in, we just kind of picked up where they left off.”

The “starters” were doing so well that Scalabrine wondered afterward if he and his fellow card sharks would get in.

Once they played, however, the trio did nothing to extinguish USC’s hot hand. Clancy made his first jumper and later made a defensive statement by blocking Perkins’ dunk attempt. USC kept up the defensive pressure, stealing a couple of cross-court passes and forcing a five count. By the midway point of the first half, the lead had grown to 39-14 as the Trojans ripped off a 20-3 run.

USC would reach its biggest lead at 87-55, on a pair of Granville free throws with 3:10 to play.

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