Olson’s Return Perks Up ‘Cats

The Trojans said they were ready.

They knew the Arizona Wildcats would ride into McKale Center on a tsunami-sized wave of emotion Thursday with Coach Lute Olson returning to the sidelines for the first time since the death of his wife, Bobbi, on Jan. 1

They knew the city of Tucson--for that matter the state of Arizona--would try to fit inside the arena.

They knew despite the 10-5 overall record, the 17th-ranked Wildcats are potentially the most talented team in the Pacific 10 Conference--and that includes No. 1 Stanford.

Even with all that knowledge, 24th-ranked USC could not keep from losing to Arizona, 71-58, before 14,564.

USC trailed, 35-26, at the half, but fought back to get within two, 48-46, with 10:57 left in the second half. But after a timeout, Arizona had a 9-2 spurt to go ahead, 57-50, and was never seriously threatened again, especially when USC went scoreless in the final 2:27.

The Wildcats (11-5, 4-1) were paced by Gilbert Arenas, who scored 11 of his 18 points in the second half. Richard Jefferson and Jason Gardner each had 17.

Despite a game-high 23 points and seven rebounds by Sam Clancy, the Trojans (12-4, 2-2) dropped their second straight Pac-10 game and suffered their most lopsided loss of the season. It was their seventh straight conference road loss, and their not-so-sweet 16th straight road defeat against Arizona.

After an 8-0 start, USC is 4-4 since and probably will fall out of the top 25 next week.

It won’t be hard to guess the reason for the continued fall of Troy. Beyond Clancy, the Trojans had 14 points from David Bluthenthal, but he made only one basket in the second half. Brandon Granville scored all 10 of his points in the second half before fouling out. The rest of the Trojans combined for 11 points.

Brian Scalabrine, harassed all night by the aggressive Arizona defense (especially 7-foot-1 center Loren Woods) missed all eight shots he took and was held scoreless for the third time this season.

“We only had 1 1/2 guys play tonight,” Coach Henry Bibby said. “That’s not enough when you play the good teams.

“It’s still early in the Pac-10 race, and we still have a chance to get a split this weekend. That’s what we have to focus on.”

Meanwhile Arizona, which played raggedly at times, was bolstered by Olson’s return.

“We’re starting to get into a groove,” Jefferson said. “We have a journey and a few bumps in the road won’t stop us from reaching our goal.”

Olson, who was greeted by a warm ovation when he came out on the court, showed most of his emotion after the game.

“It’s been a very difficult year for the team,” Olson said. “I came back now because we needed some stability. We didn’t need another person out, another person hurt.

“There were times during the day when I didn’t know if I could come here, knowing how the crowd might react and knowing there would be an empty seat.”

Even when they fell behind, 8-2, in the first four minutes, the Trojans were determined to be patient on offense, making sure they passed the ball four or five times before shooting. A 10-2 run got USC a 12-10 lead--the last lead the Trojans saw.

After a timeout, Arizona went about the business of methodically dismantling the Trojans.

Jefferson (11 points) did the early damage from the outside, and Michael Wright (nine points in the half) hammered away from the inside.

Twice in the first half the Wildcats built 13-point spreads before settling for the 35-26 lead at intermission. And USC was lucky to be only down by only nine.

Bibby tried a variety of player combinations. At one point Bluthenthal was the only starter on the floor, joined by Robert Hutchinson, Jarvis Turner, Kostas Charissis and Gennaro Busterna (playing for the first time this season after recovering from a right toe injury).

But nothing, besides Clancy, worked for long.

“I don’t think it’s any tougher to win here than anywhere else,” Granville said. “I just do not understand why we cannot win here. We get close but just can’t get over the hump.”

Said Clancy: “It’s very frustrating. We’d get close then let Gardner and Arenas get loose too many times for a three. We wanted Jefferson to shoot, but that also ended up hurting us.”