Dazed Trojans Can’t Live Up to Their Ranking at Pauley

They have been in the top 25 the past 10 weeks, but the USC Trojans have often said the rankings don’t mean anything right now.

It was obvious for nearly 30 minutes Thursday night that the Trojans’ No. 19 ranking meant nothing to the UCLA Bruins.

With 11:26 to play in the second half, UCLA was cruising, 71-52. The Trojans looked dazed and cowered. Pauley Pavilion was rocking like the old days, when the Bruins toyed with USC as if the Trojans were UCLA’s own personal practice squad.

Then USC remembered it had been a second-half team. The Trojans held UCLA to one field goal for more than 10 minutes, whittled the Bruins’ lead to 76-73 and had a two-on-one break following a steal at halfcourt with the chance to cut the lead to one or tie it with a three-pointer.

But Brian Scalabrine’s indecisive pass never got to Brandon Granville. It was the 28th and final turnover by USC. And UCLA was able to hang on, 80-75, to win its eighth in a row over USC at home. The loss also ended USC’s three-game winning streak. UCLA extended its winning streak to four.

“We almost came back, but almost is not good enough,” said USC Coach Henry Bibby, after watching the Trojans drop to 12-3. “We had some chances, but we got too far down.”

The Trojans--and the Bruins, for that matter--were too excited at the start. Dan Gadzuric belted Desmon Farmer to the floor on a drive in the lane. Gadzuric and Scalabrine jawed their way into technicals. Earl Watson knocked David Bluthenthal into the scorer’s table. Bluthenthal taunted Watson and got a technical.

The teams didn’t need basketball shorts, they needed gladiator togs.

“We did a lot of stupid things early,” said Sam Clancy, who equaled his career high with 31 points. “I felt calm, but a lot of guys were caught up in the emotion.”

Both teams eventually calmed down, but USC was still unsettled, trailing 46-39 at the half and getting down by 19 midway through the second half. Still, a big comeback was not out of the question--USC was down by 20 to Brigham Young and came back to win.

But USC did too many things wrong Thursday. Take away Clancy’s 12-of-16 shooting, and the Trojans made only 15 of 44 shots (34%). There were the aforementioned turnovers (a season high), and the inability for any other Trojan to come up big alongside Clancy.

“We didn’t have enough people come to play, a problem we’ve had all year, so it’s nothing new,” Bibby said. “We basically had one guy come to play, and that doesn’t work against a good team.”

USC has suffered its three losses by a combined eight points. Now the Trojans have seven days to think about another rotten night in Westwood as they prepare to travel to another house of horrors--Arizona.

“We’ve got to have this game out of our system by Monday,” Clancy said. “And we will play these guys again.”

Then Clancy took one last disgusted glance around UCLA’s home court.

“Maybe there is a mystique in this place,” he said. “We had five chances to win this game late and we couldn’t do anything. I saw things happen in the last five minutes that never happen to us.”