Winning Battles Amid the Losses

USC may have been swept in the Bay Area by California and Stanford for the second consecutive year, but the Trojans were feeling anything but devastated after losing by one point to the Golden Bears and throwing a major scare at the No. 2-ranked Cardinal.

“I thought it was a positive weekend for us,” Coach Henry Bibby said after the 77-67 loss to Stanford, in which an inspired USC defensive effort limited the efficient Cardinal to 28 first-half points. “We came out well. Our heart was in the game; our head was in the right place. I’m very proud of what the kids did. Sometimes you lose the game but win the battle. I thought we won a lot of battles this weekend.”

Senior guard Desmon Farmer agreed.

“Definitely, I think we’re playing together as a team,” said Farmer, who averaged 18 points on the trip. “If we can’t win the game, we should be in the game.”

And coming up is perhaps the Trojans’ biggest game of the season -- at UCLA on Wednesday night. The Trojans have won three of the last four meetings.

“Oh yeah,” Farmer said, “the big one.”

Both the Trojans and Bruins are riding three-game losing streaks, but it seems that USC has been playing better, if that’s possible, falling by a combined 26 points in its skid while UCLA has lost by a combined 54 points.

“We made a lot of progress,” Bibby said. “We had a chance to win both games. We had [Stanford]. We just broke down.”

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A teary-eyed Jeff McMillan emerged from the Trojans’ locker room after the loss to Stanford and immediately took the blame for his subpar outing against the Cardinal’s constant onslaught of big men.

“I just couldn’t get it going,” said McMillan, who entered the game making a Pacific 10 Conference-best 64.5% of his shots but then had his lowest scoring output of the season with two points on one-for-four shooting. He also committed five turnovers in 26 minutes.

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From the point-of-view department: Although Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery was quick to infer that USC’s harassing brand of defense was borderline fouling, Bibby seethed again about the physical nature of the game.

“I haven’t seen it this physical,” Bibby said, claiming that Stanford, Cal, Arizona State and Arizona have raised it a notch.

“The Big East, the ACC, they play this way. This isn’t what [Pac-10 coordinator of men’s basketball officiating] Lou Campanelli talks about. Certain teams are going at it a certain way on the floor.”

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Against Stanford, freshman guard Lodrick Stewart started for the first time since the season opener at Western Michigan on Nov. 21 and responded with 13 points and two steals in 30 minutes.

Bibby’s gag order on the Stewart twins remained in effect, though, and even extended to the Craven twins for the night.

Stewart was starting in place of junior Errick Craven, who was being punished for kicking Cal guard Richard Midgley and openly talking about it after the Trojans’ 63-62 defeat Thursday.