USC Only Half Bad in Loss to Stanford

Desmon Farmer was in full strut as he sashayed off the Maples Pavilion court on Saturday night.

It was halftime and the USC senior guard had just made a three-point basket to give the upset-minded Trojans a six-point lead over No. 2-ranked Stanford and Farmer was grooving to his beat as the student section jeered his every step.

The music, as sweet as it was playing in the mind of Farmer and the Trojans, would go horribly off-key in the second half, though, and the Cardinal found its shooting stroke in time to pull out a 77-67 victory before a crowd of 7,391.

“We didn’t play enough defense ... in the second half,” said Farmer, who had a game-high 19 points along with three assists and three steals in 40 minutes. “I guess guys broke down mentally on defense. We were letting shots go that didn’t go in the first half.”

USC, which gave up 49 second-half points and dropped its third game in a row to fall to 8-9 and 3-5 in Pacific 10 Conference play, hounded Stanford to 36.7% shooting in the first half, the Cardinal missing all six three-point attempts.

Stanford (16-0, 7-0) more than made up for its wayward ways after the break, making 72% of its shots in the second half, 66.7% (four of six) from beyond the arc.

“They got easy baskets; they made shots,” said USC Coach Henry Bibby, who was given a technical foul by referee Chris Rastatter at the 16:40 mark of the first half after complaining about a lack of calls under the basket. “They bank shots in from the top of the key.

“We let them get going.”

With Stanford holding a 14-8 lead nearly nine minutes into the game, USC took off on a defense-fueled 15-3 run, culminating with a Farmer three-point basket with 7:29 left in the half that gave the Trojans a 23-17 advantage.

Stanford crept within 29-28 on a Rob Little free throw two minutes before halftime but USC scored the final five points, including Farmer’s three-point basket with 31 seconds left to take a 34-28 lead into the break.

The only other time Stanford trailed at halftime was at Rice on Nov. 30, when the Cardinal turned a six-point deficit into a four-point victory.

Consecutive three-point baskets jump-started the Cardinal after the break and while the Trojans led, 47-46, with just under 11 minutes to play, they would get only one field goal the next four minutes.

“They went on a run and we weren’t getting stops,” said USC junior forward Nick Curtis, who spurred the Trojans in the first half with 10 points and four rebounds in 13 minutes but played only seven minutes of the second half and was scoreless and rebound-less.

“We were just trading baskets and then it got out of hand.”

Stanford, one of two unbeaten teams along with St. Joseph’s, was making everything it chucked at the basket, including Chris Hernandez’s banked three-point basket with the shot clock winding down, and led by 68-55 with 4:07 to play.

Hernandez, a sophomore point guard, led the Cardinal with 18 points.

“It felt like we were in a war,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “[USC] got after it. We played a great second half ... rather than panic ... we righted ourselves.

“USC’s for real; they can defend. Their style has always been difficult for us.”

Imagine how tough it would have been had USC maintained its defensive intensity.

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Junior guard Errick Craven, kept out of the starting lineup by Bibby because he purposely kicked California guard Richard Midgley on Thursday and then matter-of-factly acknowledged doing so, entered the Stanford game with 11:40 remaining, much to the delight of a Cardinal fan wearing a homemade T-shirt emblazoned with the Union Jack that read, “Kick me, I’m British.” Midgley is from England.

Craven finished with eight points on three-for-four shooting in eight minutes.