This USC Victory Is Built to Last

Building leads has never been a problem for USC.

It’s the whole holding-on-to-leads thing that’s been a problem for the Trojans in this rebuilding season.

Friday night in the semifinals of the Pacific 10 Conference tournament, USC showed it had seemingly learned from its season of heartbreak, building a 25-point lead with less than eight minutes to play against 24th-ranked California.

And this time, the seventh-seeded Trojans held fast and were never threatened down the stretch, defeating the third-seeded Golden Bears, 79-62, in front of 16,689 at Staples Center.

The victory put USC (14-16) in the tournament final for the second consecutive year. The Trojans will play Oregon, which earlier Friday had rallied to beat UCLA, 75-74, today at 3 p.m. An automatic bid to the NCAA tournament will be on the line.

The Trojans split with Oregon during the regular season and, counting last year’s Pac-10 tournament, have won two of past three meetings against the Ducks.

In the loss, at Eugene on Feb. 27, USC had only one point guard at its disposal as senior Robert Hutchinson missed the trip because of personal reasons and was granted a sabbatical by Coach Henry Bibby.

The Trojans are at full strength now, though, as they were against the Bears.

USC came out aggressively, forcing the action with a pressure defense that gave California fits.

The Trojans limited the Golden Bears to three field goals in the first 10-plus minutes while opening an 18-6 lead on a Rory O’Neil put-back at the 10:18 mark.

USC’s jump shots weren’t falling but the Trojans were getting it done with easy baskets off turnovers and in transition.

But as has been the case all season, USC’s well went dry as the Bears put together a 9-0 run to get back within 18-15 on Richard Midgley’s three-pointer with 8:10 remaining in the first half.

This time, however, the USC lapse was temporary. As suddenly as they went cold, the Trojans heated up from the outside.

They took off on a 15-2 run over the next three minutes to go up, 33-17.

Six of USC’s final seven field goals of the first half were three-pointers and the Trojans took a 39-27 lead into the locker room.

In the half, USC had eight steals and forced 10 Cal turnovers.

Cal senior forward Joe Shipp, the league’s leading scorer with a 20.3 average, did not score until knocking down a three-pointer with 3:21 remaining in the first half

USC continued its frenetic pace to open the second half, outscoring the Bears, 13-4, in the first five minutes to open a 52-33 lead, this time on a three-pointer by O’Neil from the right corner.

They would build it to 69-45 on a basket by Nick Curtis with 7:23 to play.

USC advanced to the semifinals by ending second-seeded Stanford’s Pac-10 tournament stay in the first round for the second consecutive year, with a 79-74 victory on Thursday night.

The Golden Bears had swept the Trojans by a combined seven points during the regular season. USC led late in each game, Cal winning, 73-68, in Berkeley on Jan. 23 and pulling out an 84-82 victory in Los Angeles a month later.

USC was outscored, 8-1, in the last 2:07 of the teams’ Feb. 22 meeting at the Sports Arena, giving Cal a four-game winning streak in the series and 10 wins in its last 12 games against the Trojans.