Trojans Hang Onto Win and Maybe NCAA Hopes

USC might not have a fistful of those elusive “quality wins” that help the NCAA tournament committee decide who gets in to the field of 64.

But the Trojans do have several big wins this season, and none was more important to their postseason hopes than the 74-69 victory over California on Saturday before 6,124 at the Sports Arena.

Led by Brandon Granville’s game-high 22 points, USC (19-9, 9-7 in Pacific 10 Conference) did more than keep the NCAA’s attention entering the final week of the college regular season. The Trojans kept Cal (19-9, 10-6) from clinching fourth place in the Pac-10.

After having lost six in a row to the Bears coming into the season, the Trojans got their first sweep of Cal since 1992. USC can grab fourth place if it beats Washington and Washington State on the road next week and Cal splits with Arizona and Arizona State at home.

Best of all, from the Trojans’ viewpoint, two wins in the Northwest should lock up a spot for the Trojans in the tournament. It would have been more difficult to claim a slot had USC lost Saturday.

“I want them to enjoy the win today,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “But we still have two more games to play. This is part of our quest to our ultimate goal, the NCAA tournament. This was a game we needed to win.”

Lending a big hand to the Trojan effort was Sam Clancy. He didn’t do it with points, although he scored 16. Clancy’s main impact came on defense, with seven of the Trojans’ season-high 11 blocked shots.

That equaled the most blocks in a Pac-10 game this season. Arizona rejected 11 Washington shots on Jan. 13.

Just as impressive was the fact that six of Clancy’s blocks came in the second half when he had three fouls. And four of them were against Sean Lampley, the conference’s leading scorer (20.0 points) who made only two of nine shots overall and had only 11 points.

“Lampley’s struggling really hurt us,” Cal Coach Ben Braun said.

“I had watched film on him and I thought I knew his move,” Clancy said of Lampley. “He doesn’t do a lot of faking; he likes to jump toward you, into you. And with my long arms, I can block shots.”

There were other key contributions. Desmon Farmer had nine points off the bench in 21 minutes before fouling out. Brian Scalabrine had 10 points and tied Clancy for the team high in rebounds with seven. As a team, USC outrebounded Cal, 37-32, and held the Bears to 35.7% shooting while making 46.8% of its own attempts.

It wasn’t easy. But nothing has been easy for USC the past three weeks.

The Trojans had built a 63-47 lead with 6:13 to play. Three minutes USC was still up by nine, 68-54. But the Bears, led by Brian Wethers’ 18 points, made a last dash at USC, cutting the lead to 72-69 with 19 seconds to play.

However, Scalabrine and Jeff Trepagnier, who took their bows with Jarvis Turner and Tyler Murphy on Senior Day, both contributed a free throw for the final margin of victory.

“This was the most stressful game I’ve been involved with here,” Bibby said. “We get a 10- or 12-point lead, then we don’t get back on defense or turn the ball over and they get back in the game. We turned the ball over several times when we could have taken control of the game.”

“A win is a win. Nobody’s going to remember how we did it next week,” Granville said. “But we can’t celebrate too much, and then go up to Washington next week and lose when we’re not supposed to. We know we need to get two next week. But we had to win this first.”

Cal Coach Ben Braun said the Trojans’ victory should clinch the argument of having five Pac-10 teams in the NCAA tournament.

“I’ve said all along we have five strong teams in the conference and I’ve seen nothing to change my mind,” Braun said. “I wish more teams from outside the conference could play us, Arizona, UCLA, Stanford and USC. I hope they get the chance.

“I give USC credit. They showed why they’ve won some big games and have been ranked throughout the season. But fourth place is still within our sights too.”