Over(time) and Out

Sam Clancy was talking this week about how USC had taken on a different role. The Trojans were the hunted now, he said, no longer the hunter.

Well, Tommy Trojan is now an endangered species, his head stuffed and adorning a wall in Wilmington, N.C.

Unheralded and 13th-seeded North Carolina Wilmington ended No. 4-seeded USC’s season with a 93-89 overtime victory Thursday in a first-round South Regional game at Arco Arena.

It was an unceremonious exit from college for USC’s three senior starters--Sam Clancy, David Bluthenthal and Brandon Granville--as they all fouled out.

“It’s a tough loss, especially since the tournament can make or break your season,” said Clancy, who had a game-high 21 points with six rebounds. “If you have a good tournament, you have a good season, no matter how [underwhelming] it was.”

After advancing to the Elite Eight last March, the Trojans were a fashionable pick this week to get to the Final Four. Instead, their season ends at 22-10. Wilmington (23-9) will face Indiana in a second-round game Saturday.

USC was out of sorts from the beginning and had to make a huge rally just to get to overtime.

After being down by 19 points, 68-49, with 9:36 remaining in the game, the Trojans roared back and tied the score at 80-80 on an Errick Craven three-point basket from the right corner with 7.9 seconds to play.

USC didn’t help its cause by missing 12 free throws in the second half.

With momentum seemingly on their side, the Trojans opened the overtime by missing layups. North Carolina Wilmington, meanwhile, was re-energized.

“It takes courage to go back out there when it seems as though the world has ended,” Seahawk Coach Jerry Wainwright said.

Inside the USC locker room, the Trojans were mulling over lost opportunities and why they came out so flat.

The Trojans were seemingly a half-step behind the Seahawks all night and North Carolina Wilmington did not blink when USC unleashed its vaunted press.

USC forced only seven turnovers in the first half and did not get a steal.

It didn’t help the Trojans that Clancy had picked up two fouls before the game was four minutes old and that he couldn’t play as aggressively on defense.

After the Trojans took an early 7-5 lead, the Seahawks went on a 9-2 run over a two-minute stretch to go up 14-9.

USC followed with a 12-2 run over 2:29 to go up by five, 21-16, following a Bluthenthal three-pointer with 10:55 to play in the half, and the Trojans seemed to be on their way.

But USC hit a wall, seemingly the same wall of fatigue that the Trojans ran into in the second half of the Pacific 10 Conference tournament title game against Arizona on Saturday.

“This was our fourth game in seven days,” Coach Henry Bibby said. “I think at the beginning it just took us a while to get into the game. I think the Pac-10 tournament took a little edge off of us. We played in three tough games, winning two of those games. That’s a lot to ask of the kids. That was one of the drawbacks that we talked about in the Pac-10 tournament.”

The Trojans could manage only two field goals the rest of the half against North Carolina Wilmington as the Seahawks closed out with a 23-7 scoring spurt to enter the break with a nine-point lead, 37-28.

“We just didn’t bring it from the beginning,” said sophomore guard Desmon Farmer, who had 20 points in 38 minutes off the bench. “The energy just wasn’t there. I tried to bring the energy but our shots weren’t hitting. They were outrebounding us and playing tougher than us.”

Then Bibby made a move that may haunt him all summer.

In trying to send a message to starters Bluthenthal and Jerry Dupree, Bibby sat the two forwards to start the second half, inserting the offensively shy duo of Gregg Guenther and Robert Hutchinson.

The Seahawks opened the second half with a 14-4 run to go up by 19, 51-32, following a Stewart Hare three-pointer at the 16:05 mark.

In catching the Seahawks down the stretch, the Trojans punched themselves out.

“I feel like we ran out of gas,” Farmer said. “The effort was still there but you can only press for so long.

“The press wasn’t working.”

Bluthenthal, who had 19 points, had another theory.

“Guys were playing selfishly,” he said softly. “That’s pretty much it. Guys know the plays. Everyone knows where they have to be. It’s a matter of getting guys open shots.”

Seahawk junior guard Brett Blizzard and junior center Craig Callahan, meanwhile, had plenty of open shots as they each had 18 points to lead North Carolina Wilmington, which had six players in double figures.

“The way to beat the press is that you can’t take the quick shots,” Blizzard said. “You have to take the best shot, a quality shot.”

Not only was it a case of the longer the Trojans allowed the Seahawks to hang around, the more confidence they got, it turned into a matter of the Seahawks watching the Trojans turn desperate before their eyes.

“I saw that panicked look,” Blizzard said. “I saw when some of their players were saying, ‘This is it, right now.’ I knew we had them on the ropes.”

Granville said the Trojans did not overlook the Seahawks.

“We knew how good they were,” Granville said. “There’s not too many slouch teams in the tournament that win 22 games. I thought they just executed their game plan better than we did.

“You play all season long to get here. And then to lose in the first round, it’s like it’s all for naught.”