While Bruins Save Season, Trojans Handle Dejection

One silly decision at the end of the first half. One monumental shot at the end of the second half. A game lost. A game won.

One great spurt, one great comeback. Two great free throws, one shot for the ages.

A celebration of great relief and unabashed joy. A mourning of a slippery rebound stolen away, a sickness in the gut from watching a no-chance shot hit nothing but the net. Barely in time for one team, much too early for the other.

One game won and lost so many times. One game chewed over, fought over, screamed over, clawed at, grabbed for, taken away, given back, snatched away again.

What happened at Pauley Pavilion Wednesday night will be celebrated and cried over forever.

UCLA beat USC, 67-65, when Billy Knight, an unassuming senior who has always done what was asked and most of the time done more, hit a 21-foot three-point shot at the buzzer.

It is the kind of shot from which grand winning streaks start, from where NCAA tournament momentum begins, from which a team gains its heart and its steel will.

This shot came so typically out of UCLA chaos.

An 11-point lead with 5:53 left had been squandered. USC had gotten back into the game, then announced its intention of sweeping the Bruins for the first time since 1992 when David Bluthenthal hit a three-pointer with 38.4 seconds left, when the Trojan defense made it impossible for Matt Barnes to get his good shot off, when Brandon Granville, after missing one free throw to start a one-and-one, gratefully accepted a second chance and made two free throws with 33.9 seconds left to give USC the lead, 65-64.

And now the Bruins needed to score to save their pride and maybe their season. There could be no explaining away a lackluster first half, when USC wanted every loose ball, took every second chance, made almost all the big plays and built a nine-point lead.

There certainly couldn’t have been a rationalization of losing that 11-point lead at home.

So the Bruins had the ball and their chance and their messy, crazy, unplanned, unscripted offense to save it. After lots of directionless passing and with the clock ticking faster and faster it seemed, UCLA freshman point guard Cedric Bozeman, who is offensively hindered by a shaky shot and a lack of confidence, was forced into throwing up an off-balance leaner which had no chance for anything except to be rebounded.

Which Dan Gadzuric did. And he shot it too, badly, and off balance and the ball fell partly into the hands of Granville, who was lying on the floor. Gadzuric leaned over to pick the ball up. He got the ball and was surrounded by Trojans. So Gadzuric heaved the ball to Knight who was as alone as a man with the need to make a last-second three-pointer could ever hope to be.

Not that the shot was easy. The lump in his throat had to be huge. The basket must have seemed miles away. But Knight didn’t hesitate. He just shot. He didn’t think. He just shot. He caught, he shot, he saved a game, maybe he saved a season.

UCLA Coach Steve Lavin said his team survived his own bad coaching. He said he didn’t use timeouts very well when USC was overcoming the 11-point UCLA lead. He took the blame for the way UCLA started the game. The Bruins seemed listless and lazy. This game which they needed more than USC was grabbed at more ferociously by the Trojans. Sam Clancy scored 17 points in the first half because he fought harder for every inch of shooting room, for every ball, for space, for breath.

An unknown senior named Gennaro Busterna, who had scored 10 points in his USC career, all this year in garbage time against Arizona, was making three pointers, making steals, hustling as if he were a ringer at a pool hall. Who was this guy?

So the Trojans had a 39-30 lead and the ball and five seconds left in the first half. Granville let the inbounds pass roll and roll. His idea was good, to conserve time and get a better shot. His attention was bad. He ignored Knight coming up, closer and closer to the ball. Until it was too late and Knight went after the ball with the diving and desperate Granville, who lost the ball out of bounds. Barnes got an inbound pass and shot immediately and perfectly, the ball dropping neatly through the net as time ran out.

The Bruins may have been behind, 39-33, but they danced off the court. That steal and shot seemed a slap in the faces of the Bruins. They had seemed too cool to act scared, too haughty to act needy for this game. After Barnes shot, they burst onto the court to start the second half.

They played a masterly matchup zone. They cut off USC dribble penetration. They sealed off the lane. Clancy only got seven more points.

“My team didn’t always play well in the second half,” Lavin said, “but they played hard.”

From games such as this, amazing things can follow.

We know what to expect from the Trojans. They will play full speed all the time. They will not be discouraged. They will not let themselves be conquered by the shock of this loss. We don’t know what to expect of the Bruins. Not yet.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.