Farmer Has a Field Day for USC

You know Desmon Farmer is feeling it when he breaks into his George Jefferson strut, walking about the court with his head cocked back, his chest puffed out and his arms fanning his backside.

Sunday against Lafayette, Farmer was definitely movin’ on up at the Sports Arena while shooting down the Leopards. Especially in the first half of USC’s 81-59 victory in the Trojans’ final nonconference game, the senior guard scoring 21 of his game-high 23 points before halftime.

“I just wanted to come out and get guys fired up,” said Farmer, who moved into 15th place on USC’s scoring list with 1,228 points despite battling flu and asking to come out of the game. “I’m about bringing a positive energy to the game.

“The confidence I have is what makes me play like that.”

And it was a prolonged defensive intensity that enabled a trapping USC to finally get the blowout it had been craving.

Ending Lafayette’s eight-game winning streak before an announced 3,218 was gravy for the Trojans.

USC (5-4) scored the first 19 points and led, 23-4, before nine minutes were gone, the Leopards missing their first 12 shots and 16 of their first 18.

It contributed to Lafayette, which came in shooting 49.8% from the field and 35.4% from three-point territory, shooting only 33.3% overall, 24.1% of its three-pointers.

“We ran our offense,” said Leopard Coach Fran O’Hanlon, “we just didn’t make shots.”

Justin DeBerry led the Leopards with 14 points, but their shooting percentage and points scored were opponent season-lows for the Trojans while USC’s 14 steals were a season high.

“It’s about time,” said USC Coach Henry Bibby. “I thought we played better defense than we’ve played all year. For 35 to 38 minutes we played good defense.”

Bibby’s two to five minutes, then, that USC slept, resulted in Lafayette (8-2) going on an 11-0 run to climb within eight points.

No matter, USC called a timeout and went on a 16-1 run for its biggest first-half lead, 39-16, following a Farmer layup at the 3:55 mark.

USC’s biggest lead, 65-38, followed a putback by Jeff McMillan, who had 18 points and eight rebounds, with 11:13 to play. Lafayette, however, staged another 11-0 run, which was followed by a 12-5 USC scoring spurt.

With senior guard Roy Smiley and junior forward Nick Curtis out because of injuries and freshman guard Quinton Day home in Kansas City for personal reasons (he also missed the Trojans’ post-Thanksgiving game against Cal State Northridge) USC had only eight scholarship players available.

But that was eight more than Lafayette, which does not award athletic scholarships.

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Its two-in-four penance served, USC has committed to play in the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu next December.

“It’s a great cultural experience for our guys and great competition,” said USC senior associate athletic director Daryl Gross, who oversees scheduling for the basketball team. “It’s great exposure and gets you prepared for the [Pacific 10 Conference] season, so we’re always looking for these kinds of events.”

Other schools reportedly committed: Georgetown, Clemson, Louisiana State and Long Beach State.

NCAA rules state that schools can play in two exempted events -- multigame tournaments that count as one game towards a school’s 28-game regular season limit -- every four years and USC had already played in the Yahoo Invitational in 2000 and in the Preseason NIT in 2001.

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UP NEXT FOR USC

Friday vs. Oregon (5-2), 6 p.m., Fox Sports Net 2 -- The Trojans and Ducks, who lost three starters from last year’s team, including Pacific 10 Conference player of the year Luke Ridnour, split a pair of regular-season meetings, with each team winning on its home court. Oregon, though, beat USC, 74-66, in the Pac-10 tournament title game at Staples Center, ending the Trojans’ season at 13-17. This will be the conference opener for both schools.

-- Paul Gutierrez