USC Dogged by Huskies’ Persistence

It’s as sure a thing as the USC band belting out “Conquest” umpteen times during a game -- the Trojans hitting a horrid scoring slump while watching their opponents make just about every ridiculous shot they throw at the basket.

It happened again Thursday night with USC, coming off an eight-day break, looking unbeatable for the first 16-plus minutes of the game before getting simply beat down.

Washington, which looked as bad early on as USC looked good, did the honors and used a 24-4 scoring run to thump the listless Trojans, 93-82, before 3,835 at the Sports Arena.

So much for USC realizing a sense of urgency.

“We came out with the right energy,” said senior guard Desmon Farmer, who had a game-high 31 points on 10-of-20 shooting with six rebounds but five turnovers. “We just didn’t finish with the right energy.”

USC, which fell to 9-10 overall, 4-6 in Pacific 10 conference play, and had not played since beating UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 28, committed 21 turnovers, one off its season high.

The Trojans led by 11 points, 31-20, following a Derrick Craven three-pointer with 6:29 remaining in the first half, and still had an 11-point advantage, 33-22, after another Craven score with 5:04 to play.

That’s when they went into the tank, scoring one field goal the remainder of the half.

Washington, which had scored 23 points in the first 16-plus minutes of the half, scored 20 in the final four minutes as part of a half-closing 21-4 run, the Huskies taking a 43-37 lead into halftime.

The Trojans committed 17 turnovers and were called for 14 fouls during the collapse.

“We turned the basketball over six of the seven times down the court,” said USC Coach Henry Bibby, referring to the Trojans’ cold spell.

“We got it back in the second a little bit. We got within three.”

After Washington forward Mike Jensen knocked down a three-pointer to start the second half, extending the Huskies’ run to 24-4 and giving the Huskies a nine-point lead, 46-37, USC ran off an 8-2 scoring spurt to get within three, 48-45.

The Trojans could have got within one, but freshman guard Lodrick Stewart missed a breakaway lay-up on a play in which he went behind the back with the ball on his way to the basket.

Also hurting the Trojans was Nick Curtis missing an alley-oop dunk during their mini-run.

“It’s safe to say that,” Bibby said, when asked whether his players had perhaps tried to do too much on those specific plays.

Washington (10-8, 5-5), which was led by sophomore guard Brandon Roy’s 17 points in winning its fifth straight game, eventually extended it lead to 12 points, 64-52, before USC again made it interesting, getting within four, 70-66, on a Rory O’Neil three-pointer with 8:02 to play.

The Huskies would not fold, though, and their lead never fell below eight points again.

O’Neil, who had 12 points off the bench, showed a passion in the final seconds that was missing from the Trojan bench late in the first half.

With 3.6 seconds to play and the Trojans having accepted the result by not chasing the ball, Jensen took the ball from the left corner and burst toward the basket for a potential game-ending monster dunk. O’Neil had other ideas and hammered Jensen. Referee Tommy Nunez ejected O’Neil with a flagrant foul.

“Pretty much,” said O’Neil, when asked whether it was simply a play in which he was not going to allow the visiting team to celebrate unnecessarily. The flagrant foul “was a judgment call by the referee. You can’t argue with a judgment call.”

O’Neil is eligible to play Saturday against Washington State.

Said Jensen: “I shouldn’t have tried to do that at the end of the game.”

*

Farmer (1,453 points) moved from 10th to seventh place on the USC career scoring list, passing John Block, Brandon Granville and Brian Scalabrine.