USC Outclasses Stanford

At least Stanford missed only one day of school.

After complaining long and hard about the academic consequences of holding a league tournament, and delaying the team’s departure from its Palo Alto campus to get in a full day of classes, the Cardinal was taught a different kind of lesson Thursday afternoon.

With Staples Center serving as the classroom and USC acting as the strict instructor, the Trojans ended Stanford’s stay in the resurrected Pacific 10 Conference tournament with a 103-78 thrashing in a first-round game.

In pulling off a three-game sweep of Stanford, the 22nd-ranked Trojans earned a rematch against regular-season champion Oregon in a semifinal at 6 tonight.

Having lost to Oregon twice this season by a total of six points, the Trojans reached the semifinals by getting a boost from their bench to go along with solid senior play in what was their highest-scoring outing of the season.

“Everybody showed up today,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “We need more than one, one-and-a-half people to show up, and they all showed up.

“I’ve said that the most important people on the team are the bench. When they come in and get involved, it makes things that much easier.”

Five Trojans scored in double figures for the sixth time this season, the third time against Stanford, and USC (21-8) improved to 6-0 in such games.

Senior forward Sam Clancy, the newly crowned Pac-10 player of the year, solidified his selection by going for a game-high 25 points and nine rebounds while getting three blocks and two steals.

Senior point guard Brandon Granville had his fifth double-double of the season with 20 points and 11 assists, and senior small forward David Bluthenthal had 17 points while making four of six three-point shots.

Desmon Farmer and Jerry Dupree, two excitable role players who have felt Bibby’s wrath for lack of focus in recent weeks, provided the spark off the bench. Farmer finished with 19 points and two steals in 28 minutes, and Dupree had 10 points and two assists in 16 minutes.

“Me and Jerry try to bring the energy,” Farmer said. “From our facial expressions to how we play on the court. We just want to get everybody involved.”

Dupree, a junior college transfer who started the Trojans’ first three games of the season before being lost in the shuffle and relegated to substitute duty, agreed, saying he was close to checking out mentally on the Trojans in midseason.

“It’s all about high energy,” he said, “getting the crowd into it. When we play like that, the whole team plays as one.”

The Trojans were playing as one midway through the first half, and the game was comfortably in hand by halftime.

With Stanford (19-9) holding a 12-9 lead, USC went to a three-guard lineup of Farmer, Granville and freshman Errick Craven, with Bluthenthal and Clancy up front.

The Trojans, having been stymied by trying to play a half-court game with the bigger and more methodical Cardinal, also started showing various versions of their full-court press.

Although it didn’t create the rash of turnovers it had in the teams’ two previous meetings, the press did speed up the tempo into USC’s favor.

With the smaller lineup on the floor, the Trojans went on an 11-2 run to grab a 20-14 lead. USC then embarked on a 28-11 run over a nearly nine-minute span to go up by a first half-high 23 points, 48-25, with three minutes remaining in the half.

Included in the run were three Bluthenthal three-pointers in less than 21/2 minutes and an alley-oop dunk by Dupree in which the small forward seemed to come down from the Staples Center rafters.

USC shot 66.7% from the field in the first half, 63.6% (seven of 11) from beyond the three-point arc, while limiting the Cardinal to 38.2% and one for eight on three-pointers.

“We were quicker than them and made a lot of ‘sick’ plays, as the coaches call them,” Bluthenthal said.

“We just had more energy than they did.”

With USC getting only one field goal in a span of 7:25 in the second half, Stanford crept within 14 points, 65-51, with just over 12 minutes remaining. Then USC took off again, gaining a game-high 32-point lead, 98-66, with 3:46 to play.

“They came out and were much more aggressive and just stepped up and made shots,” said Stanford center Curtis Borchardt, who had 17 points. “They were everywhere, on offense and defense. They just flat out kicked our butts. They were just flat out better.”

Sounds like a lesson learned.