Free Throws Get Trojans’ Points Across

Looking up into the north end rafters of the Sports Arena, where only the UCLA pep band sat, USC sophomore guard Errick Craven stepped to the free-throw line.

There were 4.4 seconds remaining in the game Wednesday night and, with the Trojans down by a point, the sophomore guard had been fouled by Ryan Walcott on a drive into the lane. Craven had two free throws to not only give USC a victory over its hated cross-town rival but also make history.

Craven converted the first, which tied the score. Then he made the second, giving USC the slimmest of margins.

And after UCLA guard Jon Crispin’s off-balance runner with a second remaining failed to go down, Craven had not only given the Trojans an 86-85 victory in front of 10,147, he had given USC its first season sweep of the Bruins since 1992 and extended UCLA’s losing streak to nine games.

“I just tried to calm myself,” said Craven, who finished with 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. “There’s just so much tradition between the schools and we hadn’t swept them in 11 years. I just had to make them both.

“I told myself that I was a good shooter. I know the percentage [67.2%] isn’t that good, but Coach [Henry Bibby] always says that if you say it can happen, it will happen.”

It was made possible by a key rebound by sophomore center Rory O’Neil.

After the Bruins had clawed their way back from a 10-point deficit with just over eight minutes to play to go up by three, 85-82, Craven’s brother Derrick drove the lane and scored with 46.3 seconds to play.

On its ensuing possession, UCLA ran the shot clock down before junior center T.J. Cummings took a long jumper. O’Neil grabbed the rebound and passed to a streaking Errick Craven, who was fouled by Walcott, setting up the game-winning free throws.

Jason Kapono inbounded the ball to Crispin, and the reserve guard ran the ball up the right sideline and curled toward the middle of the floor before shooting from about 30 feet away.

“There was more time than Jon realized,” said UCLA Coach Steve Lavin, who said he had Kapono inbound so the Bruins would have a shooter trailing the play for a possible kick-out. “We wanted him to get deeper into the paint.”

Instead, only the Bruins’ pain became deeper.

When asked if the loss was the biggest heartbreaker of the season, Lavin shrugged. “I have a hard time distinguishing,” he said.

Consider: UCLA fell to 4-14 overall, 2-8 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

But in the other locker room, USC was feeling nothing but elation after moving to 9-9 and 5-5.

After a sluggish first half, with UCLA leading, 36-34, Bibby was looking for continuity and rode his starters in the second half, not making a substitution until Roy Smiley came in for Errick Craven at the 9:09 mark.

And with the Trojans able to get their transition game running, they went up by a game-high 10 points, 66-56, on a Smiley runner in the lane with 8:23 to play.

But while USC could manage but one field goal over the next four-plus minutes, UCLA began draining three-pointers, four in a four-minute stretch, and suddenly, the Bruins led by two, 75-73, on a Walcott three-pointer with 4:12 remaining.

“When we were down 10, we made a run and it came down to making stops on the defensive end and they made some tough shots,” said Kapono, who had 12 points. “We didn’t prevent them from getting into the lane.”

The last four minutes became a shootout between USC junior guard Desmon Farmer, who led USC with 28 points and nine rebounds, and UCLA sophomore forward Dijon Thompson, who had a career-high 25 points.

“I wasn’t trying to match buckets with him,” Farmer said. “I just felt like I had to do something to help my team win.”

And what was going through Bibby’s mind when Craven stepped to the line?

“It’s a crapshoot,” he said. “ He didn’t shoot free throws well today during the shoot-around but he told me he’d do better in the game.”