Trojans Are Thunderstruck

Overcome with the emotion of beating USC for the first time in school history, UC Santa Barbara hooted and hollered its way to its locker room as a smattering of the 4,490 in attendance stormed the Thunderdome court.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Gaucho sophomore forward Casey Cook yelled, to no one in particular. “USC? A steppingstone, a steppingstone.”

Indeed, the Gauchos could have used the bricks the Trojans threw up in the second half of the 69-53 Santa Barbara victory Tuesday night for so many steppingstones.

Consider: After taking a 30-28 lead into halftime, USC (2-2) shot a miserable 24.2% (eight of 33) from the field in the second half and the 53 points the Trojans finished with represented their lowest offensive output since losing, 67-52, at Oregon State on Feb. 22, 2001.

“In the first half, the ball falls; in the second half, it doesn’t,” said junior guard Roy Smiley, who led the Trojans with a career-high 16 points but scored only two in the second half. After making four of his five three-point attempts in the game’s first 20 minutes Smiley was 0 for 3 from beyond the arc in the second.

“There was a lid [on the basket] in the second half,” he said.

The lid was on it all game long for USC’s two leading returning scorers.

Junior guard Desmon Farmer came off the bench to finish with 12 points but he was just five of 14 from the field, 0 for 7 from beyond the three-point stripe.

And the early season shooting woes of sophomore shooting guard Errick Craven, who was coming off a one-game suspension, continued as well. Craven started against the Gauchos but made only two of his 13 shots and had eight points.

“When Errick and Desmon shoot the way they’re shooting -- they’re a big part of what we do -- it makes things tough for us,” said USC Coach Henry Bibby.

USC’s biggest lead was five points, 28-23, following a Smiley three-pointer with 3:50 to play in the first half, and the Trojans’ last lead was at 35-33 on a Robert Hutchinson three-pointer at the 17:34 mark of the second half.

“When we executed the offense,” Craven said, “we had great looks at the basket. The ball just was not going in. So we tried to concentrate on the defensive end but they were making shots and our defense [fell apart]. Our defensive rotation was terrible tonight.”

After holding the Gauchos (3-2) to 33.3% shooting from three-point territory in the first half, the Trojans’ perimeter defense collapsed in the second, when Santa Barbara made 60% of its three-pointers.

Gaucho junior small forward Branduinn Fullove led Santa Barbara with 23 points.

“They outplayed us,” Bibby said, “beat us to every ball, rebounding, shooting. They stayed within their structure. We’re a pretty good jump-shooting team ... just not tonight.

“Hopefully there’s not too many more lumps. We just couldn’t make a shot, just couldn’t score tonight. We missed a lot of defensive assignments ... had too many defensive breakdowns.”

It’s enough to make a Big West Conference favorite walk around with a steppingstone-sized chip on its shoulder, especially after beating a team for the first time in 12 tries.

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USC’s hopes of having its loss at Rhode Island expunged from the record book were doused Tuesday, and the Trojans, hoping to play in their third consecutive NCAA tournament for the first time in school history, have to accept losing to a team expected to finish near the bottom of the Atlantic 10.

“The result of the game can’t be changed,” said USC senior associate athletic director Daryl Gross, who spent Tuesday going over possible actions with Pacific 10 officials.

“It was a matter of ‘You’re right, you’re right, you’re right,’ but there’s nothing we can do about it. We need to put some closure to this in the right way. We want to support Henry and make sure there’s some acknowledgment from the A-10 that things went wrong there.”

Bibby, who said the three-man Atlantic 10 officiating crew wanted Rhode Island to win its first game in the Rams’ new arena, has not been reprimanded by the Pac-10 for his comments. Bibby had contended that Rhode Island’s 73-71 win should be vacated because the officials failed to assess a technical foul on the Rams when the team, cheerleaders and fans rushed the court with 2.2 seconds remaining.

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Up Next

Saturday vs. No. 15 Missouri (3-0) in Wooden Classic at Arrowhead Pond, 4 p.m. -- The Trojans (2-2) lead the all-time series, 5-4, and last played the Tigers in the 1995 Rainbow Classic, pulling out a 75-64 win. Missouri finished 24-12 last season after advancing to the Elite Eight, where it lost to Oklahoma.

-- Paul Gutierrez