It Slowly Gets Worse for Trojans

It would be funny were it not so sad.

USC’s up-and-down season hit a new low Saturday night, the Trojans getting embarrassed by Washington State, 60-51, and its grind-it-out, bore-everyone-in-the-Sports Arena-to-tears style.

How bad has it gotten for the Trojans, who have lost three straight home games and five of six overall, this despite scoring the game’s first nine points against the Cougars?

Put it this way: USC’s freshmen Stewart twins, Lodrick and Rodrick, have already lost more games this season than they did in four years at Seattle’s Rainier Beach High School, where they were 106-10.

And USC has been swept by Washington State, the former dregs of the Pacific 10 Conference, for the first time since 1986, before the Stewarts, who are still banned from talking to the media, were a year old.

Things look to get no easier for eighth-place USC, which fell to 9-11 overall, 4-7 in the Pacific 10, what with a trip to Arizona up next.

“It’s hard, this week was hard for us. I guess we just have to come back and fight,” said Desmon Farmer, who led the Trojans with 17 points, though he was only four for 13 from the field.

Farmer, who entered the game nursing a sore left heel and left, shooting hand, missed seven of his 12 free throws. He entered the game shooting a team-best 81.5% from the free-throw line.

“I’m trying to adjust to the soreness of my wrist,” Farmer said. “I haven’t been able to feel the ball. I can’t use that as an excuse, though. Seven free throws, that’s a lot of them missed. I’ve got to get the feel of the ball.”

Washington State (11-10, 5-6), coming off the high of beating UCLA in Los Angeles for the first time in 47 years two days earlier, remained in the Southland stratosphere. The Cougars were led by senior point guard Marcus Moore’s 14 points.

USC, meanwhile, shot a season-low 37.5% from the field.

“We couldn’t score,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “We couldn’t make a jump shot, couldn’t make a layup, couldn’t make a free throw, one of those nights where you can’t make a basket but you’re still kind of in the ball game, within striking distance. You either turn it over or foul. It was a tough week to lose two games at home. You could have gained some ground ... but we didn’t do it.”

To their credit, the Trojans showed some semblance of life before a mostly silent crowd of 4,788 in trimming a 12-point Cougar lead in the second half to three points with almost seven minutes to play.

But they could get only three field goals the rest of the way and set a season-low for points scored as their recent ineptitude at the free-throw-line continued -- USC missed 12 of its 20 free throws.

It didn’t start out so poorly for the Trojans, however.

Washington State, a plodding team even when it’s making its shots, missed its first seven field-goal attempts and was one for nine to start the game.

Predictably, though, USC fell asleep after going up 9-0 and the Cougars, who did not get on the scoreboard until the game was more than seven minutes old, took advantage with a mind-numbing 19-4 run.

In the Cougars’ scoring spurt, the misfiring Trojans could muster only four points in 12 minutes 52 seconds.

Only a Derrick Craven three-pointer and a Jonathan Oliver put-back with a second to play in the half kept USC from being more than eight points behind at halftime.

Washington State led by 12 points, 40-28, with 15 minutes to play after a pair of Anthony Grant free throws.

USC closed the gap to three, 47-44, at the 6:46 mark on a Farmer three-pointer.

Enter the Cougars’ Jeff Varem. The junior guard made seven of nine free throws in the next three-plus minutes while USC only got a field goal from Errick Craven. Washington State’s lead was back to eight points, 54-46, with 3:30 to play.

USC would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.