Clancy Carrying the Load

Is there a better player than Sam Clancy in the Pacific 10 Conference at this moment?

The Trojans’ 6-foot-7 power forward put on yet another overpowering performance Saturday, getting 28 points, seven rebounds and four blocks in No. 24 USC’s 77-58 victory over Arizona State.

As a muted crowd of 6,846 looked on in the Wells Fargo Arena, Clancy made nine of 15 shots and 10 of 13 free throws. In five conference games, Clancy is averaging 22.8 points while making 60.3% of his shots. He also has 16 of USC’s 25 blocked shots in Pac-10 play.

“If Sam Clancy’s not the player of the week then I don’t know basketball,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “Sam dominated Arizona. He dominated tonight. There’s no power forward playing better than him right now.”

Bibby got no argument from Clancy.

“The last 10-11 games I’ve been doing everything I want to do,” he said. “I’m making shots, playing aggressive, picking everything up. And that’s what I’ve got to do if we’re going to try and win the Pac-10. I’ve got to be a leader by example, and play the way I’ve been playing.”

Clancy’s 19-point first half, in which he made seven of nine shots against Arizona State’s 7-foot sophomore center, Tyson Johnston, went a long way in helping USC, 13-4 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-10, end a two-game skid, as well as stop the team’s seven-game Pac-10 road losing streak. It was also USC’s biggest margin of victory here since 1990.

Just as important, Trojans other than Clancy got in the flow. Brandon Granville had a season-high 22 points to go with seven assists. Brian Scalabrine, who was scoreless against Arizona on Thursday, had 13.

Injury-racked Arizona State (8-10, 0-6), which is down to eight scholarship players, lost its sixth in a row, all in conference play. The Sun Devils were led by Donnell Knight, who scored 17 points.

“We only have four losses, but our confidence was down a little bit,” Granville said. “Losing two in a row kind of hurt, even though both were tough games at UCLA and Arizona. We not only needed a road win in the Pac-10 but we needed a good win. We had that tonight.”

Granville could not let the Clancy bandwagon roll by without taking a seat.

“I’ve been saying since the beginning of the year that Sam can be the best player in Pac-10 if he took on the challenge. I’ve been seeing this in practice, in pickup games and last year before he got hurt. This isn’t a surprise to me.”

For the first time USC sent out the lineup with which it expected to open the season. Jeff Trepagnier, who sat out three games because of a stress fracture and was suspended for nine more while being investigated (and subsequently cleared) by the NCAA, replaced Desmon Farmer.

But the lift Bibby was expecting the Trojans to get didn’t surface until midway through the first half, when the Trojan defense clamped down on the Sun Devils. Trailing, 21-15, with 11:56 to play, USC went on a 26-7 run and held Arizona State scoreless the final 4:36 of the half.

Leading at halftime, 41-28, USC still had to determine if it could keep Arizona State from getting back into the game. The Trojans didn’t let down, holding the Sun Devils to 36.7% shooting. The lead grew to 60-36 before fans started heading for the exits with 14 minutes to play, several putting paper bags over their heads.

“That was one of the points we made to ourselves at halftime,” Granville said. “We didn’t want to come out, sit back and relax. We wanted to keep attacking them, take the fastbreak if it was there, and not get stagnant.”

Said Clancy: “We played great defense the whole night. That’s what we have to do every night.”

It got so bad for the Sun Devils that their student cheering section was calling on Bibby to bring in Farmer and Nate Hair during the final two minutes.

“We did what we said we wanted to do,” Clancy said. “We wanted a split this weekend. We knew it would be tough at Arizona, and we knew it would be possible to win down here. Now we have to go defend our home turf against the Oregon schools, but right now we’re in good shape.”

Said Arizona State Coach Rob Evans: “We got beat by a better team tonight. USC came in here ready to play and with a purpose. And the better team won because they played harder.

“We’re struggling mentally and physically right now. We need to get it fixed. We’re doing everything we can to get it fixed. We will go back to the drawing board on Monday.”

Meanwhile, the Trojans will keep going back to Clancy.