Penn Is More Like Poison Ivy for USC

The last time USC played at the Forum, the Trojans were robbed of some cash and personal belongings in their locker room.

This time they were stripped of their dignity ... and their voices.

Pennsylvania embarrassed USC, 99-61, in a nonconference game before 3,856 Saturday night.

The loss came a mere three days after the inspirational victory at UCLA for the Trojans, who were then deemed off-limits to the media by Coach Henry Bibby.

Bibby, though, tried to explain the Trojans’ worst beating since being thumped by Arizona by 44 points, 105-61, in 2001 at the Sports Arena.

“Coming off the big win, I think we came out flat, not ready to play,” he said. “We were playing a team that went to the [NCAA] tournament last year. [They have] pretty good players on that basketball team to be non-scholarship. Not too many guys I would not want to take on that team.”

He probably wished he had taken a chance on Pennsylvania senior forward Koko Archibong, a self-described late bloomer who played high school ball at Pasadena Poly.

Archibong, who had dozens of friends and family members in the stands, made the Forum his personal playground with a game-high 21 points and 11 rebounds.

“It’s indescribable,” he said of his homecoming game. “I would never have imagined it would be like this. I mean in the Forum, to look down on the court and see all that Laker yellow, it was just beautiful.”

As was the Quakers’ shooting performance. They shot a school-record 72% from the field, 75% (15 of 20) from beyond the three-point arc and a USC-opponent record for a half 87.5% (21 of 24) in the first half, when they scored on 11 consecutive possessions at one point.

It didn’t help that USC shot a season-low 30.8% from the field, its worst since making 30.2% against Oregon State two years ago.

And while it was last January that someone made their way into the Forum locker room and went through team members’ pockets, the Quakers held up the Trojans this time in full view.

From the get-go, the Trojans (6-5) had trouble with how big, active and athletic the Quakers were, a cold reality that stunned the USC faithful but elated the surprisingly large contingent of Pennsylvania fans.

Not content to sit back in half-court sets and back-door USC to death, as Ivy League schools are prone to do, Pennsylvania (5-4) took the game to the Trojans and ran them out of the arena.

With the Quakers easily solving the Trojans’ full-court pressure and then torching USC’s zone defense with hot outside shooting, Pennsylvania led by nine points, 24-15, with 11:14 remaining in the first half.

USC then switched to a man-to-man defense and used a 7-1 run over the next 2:25 to cut the deficit to 25-22 on Roy Smiley’s three-pointer at the 8:49 mark.

But that’s when the competitive part of the game ended.

As USC inexplicably sat back in a matchup zone defense, Pennsylvania shredded the Trojans on both ends of the court, limiting them to one field goal the remainder of the half. The 28-5 run, a stretch that included five Quaker three-pointers, gave Penn a 53-27 lead at the break.

Playing a man defense to open the second half, the Trojans opened with a 9-4 spurt to close the gap to 21, 57-36, on Desmon Farmer’s basket at the 17:40 mark.

They would get no closer.

The Quakers, who came into the game winless outside of their hometown of Philadelphia, did not blink.

Rather, they extended their lead to a game-high 42 points, 95-53, when Duane King hit a three-pointer with 3:22 to play.

USC sophomore forward Nick Curtis led the Trojans with 15 points and eight rebounds.

“It was just one of those nights,” Bibby said.