Trojans Can’t Hold On After Late Comeback

And it continues ... the losing and the waiting.

USC’s losing streak reached seven games, its longest in five seasons, and the Trojans, courtesy of their 95-89 loss to Washington on Thursday night, have still not qualified for the eight-team Pacific 10 Conference tournament.

These things happen when you start a game with arguably the most phlegmatic three minutes of the season, getting outscored, 13-2, before going cold down the stretch ... again, turning a four-point lead into merely the latest in a frustrating line of losses.

Is anybody listening?

Does anybody care?

While it doesn’t seem as if the Trojans do, they can still get into the conference tournament and gain the No. 7 seeding by beating last-place Washington State on Saturday and having UCLA defeat Washington, which improved to 10-16 overall, 5-12 in the Pac-10 in sweeping USC.

USC would get the No. 8 seed with a victory and a UCLA loss.

But should the Trojans (10-16, 5-12) lose to the Cougars and ifUCLA defeats Washington, USC is finished.

“Our mojo is gone now, but I think we still have a run in us. We’re due for a run,” said junior forward Jerry Dupree, who downplayed his career-high 17 points with nine rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench.

“I could have had 30 [points] and 20 [rebounds] and it wouldn’t have mattered. We lost.”

Desmon Farmer’s trademark headband was also a casualty, as the junior shooting guard played without his head adorned for the first time in his USC career and it bothered him.

“I lost it. I’m thinking somebody stole it,” he said. “I mentally broke down.”

Still, Farmer led the Trojans with a game-high 23 points in front of 3,473 at the Sports Arena but it was his airball on a wide-open three-point shot from the left wing with 44 seconds left and USC trailing by two, 89-87, that had him dragging his feet.

“I’ll take that shot any day,” Farmer said. “I don’t know. My head got out of the game for some reason. That’s why I shot that airball.”

Nobody else had a reason why the desperate Trojans folded again in crunch time either, becoming participants in a theater of the absurd.

USC, which used a spirited 19-6 run to go from a nine-point deficit, 73-64, with 11:19 left to gain its biggest lead of the game, four points, at 83-79 on an Errick Craven free throw with 6:16 to play, simply found another way to lose.

“It’s like we don’t have the drive,” said starting point guard Derrick Craven, who was scoreless with three assists and three turnovers. “We can’t ... play at the end.

“We’ve got to keep attacking and not get complacent and try to keep the lead instead of building on it.”

Washington freshman point guard Nate Robinson, all 5-feet-8 of him, led the Huskies with 18 points to help his team end a four-game losing streak. Curtis Allen scored 17 for Washington.

“It seemed as though we lost concentration,” said USC Coach Henry Bibby. “You can’t give up 95 points and expect to win the ballgame. Our offense sputtered at the end, but we had enough points to win.”

Bibby tried to build his team’s confidence and save the Trojans’ legs by skipping practice on Wednesday and taking them to a movie.

His plans for today, with the Trojans looking at possibly finishing in ninth place a year after tying for second?

“Who knows,” Bibby said. “We might take the team on a picnic.”

If things fall a certain way on Saturday, the Trojans will have an earlier start on spring break picnics and cookouts than anyone expected.