USC Finds Touch Again

David Bluthenthal was feeling it.

The USC senior small forward had been in Trojan Coach Henry Bibby’s doghouse seemingly since practice began in mid-October.

Bluthenthal, a preseason Wooden Award candidate who is the Trojans’ top long-range threat, hadn’t started a game and had missed his first 10 three-point attempts of the season.

But against UC Santa Barbara Monday night at the Sports Arena, he heated up in the middle of the second half.

Bluthenthal made five three-point shots, all in the game’s final 12 minutes, and finished with a game-high 19 points, 17 in the second half, as the Trojans held off a pesky Gaucho team, 73-62, in front of 3,344.

The first of Bluthenthal’s three-point baskets came at the 11:39 mark. After burying the shot from the top of the key, a look of liberation crossed Bluthenthal’s face as he turned to run up court.

“That was a big relief,” said Bluthenthal, who also had seven rebounds in 39 minutes of his first start of the year.

“The biggest relief of my life at this point.”

USC senior power forward Sam Clancy finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double in as many games. He also had three blocks and passed Paul Westphal for 20th on USC’s all-time scoring list with 1,099 career points.

“It was only a matter of time,” Clancy said of Bluthenthal shooting his way out of his slump.

“David’s not going to go cold for too long. That’s what he does.”

Trojan senior point guard Brandon Granville also had a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists without a turnover. Granville jumped to No. 8 on the Pacific 10 Conference’s all-time assists list with 617 and, with two three-pointers against Santa Barbara, Granville (167) moved within nine of Harold Miner (176) on USC’s all-time three-pointer list.

The Gauchos (2-1) were led by junior forward Mark Hull’s 17 points.

USC Coach Henry Bibby insisted that he had no real concern for the Trojans’ early-season shooting woes. After two games the Trojans were a woeful 11.1% from beyond the three-point arc.

After going one for 11 on three-point attempts in the first half against the Gauchos, USC’s three-point shooting percentage dropped to 10.5%.

The Trojans (2-1) made eight of 14 from three-point territory in the second half.

Bibby said it wasn’t a matter of waiting Bluthenthal out.

“There’s no time to wait things out,” Bibby said. “The season’s already started.

“We know he can shoot the ball. He made some big shots against Kentucky [in the NCAA tournament, when he made six against the Wildcats].

“Tonight, without David Bluthenthal, it’s a great win for Santa Barbara.”

The more Bluthenthal felt it, the deeper he started shooting it, launching shots from 25 feet. His third three-pointer of the night, with 8:47 to play, gave USC a lead it would not relinquish at 50-48.

“We haven’t had to react to a hot shooter this year,” Santa Barbara Coach Bob Williams said.

“[Bluthenthal’s] last two three-pointers were against a zone, while his first couple were against a man-to-man defense. He had some great open looks. When he gets a hot hand, he can really play. He’s a great player. His confidence level really took off in the second half.”

USC looked anything but confident in the first half.

Santa Barbara ran out to a game-high 12-point lead, 22-10, after a Hull three-point shot at the 11:33 mark.

The Gauchos’ small but vocal traveling party began chanting “overrated” at USC from its nook of the Sports Arena and, truth be told, the Trojans fell out of the latest poll, which was released Monday afternoon.

But USC limited the Gauchos to only two field goals over the first half’s final 11:30 and closed it out with a 21-8 run to take a one-point lead, 31-30, into the locker room.

Santa Barbara opened the second half with a scoring spurt to lead by eight points on two occasions, the final time at 46-38 following a Mike Vucovich layup with 11:48 left in the game.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

UP NEXT

at Bradley, Saturday, 5 (PST): The Braves lead the all-time series, 4-2, though the Trojans have won the last two meetings, in 1974 and last year’s season opener when Sam Clancy scored a career-high 31 points in USC’s 107-92 win at the Sports Arena. Bradley is 2-0 with wins over Louisiana-Lafayette and Western Illinois and plays at Alabama-Birmingham tonight.

Paul Gutierrez