Trojans Are Pulled Down

As the team captains for Oregon and USC met at midcourt for pregame instructions Thursday night, Luke Jackson playfully grabbed Desmon Farmer’s injured left wrist and gave it a squeeze, as if to ask, “Is this where it hurts?”

Minutes later, during warmups, Farmer sneaked behind Jackson and tugged at his shorts, pulling them down a tad as Jackson shot the ball.

Ultimately, though, it was Jackson who undressed the short-handed Trojans, leading the Ducks on a second-half surge that carried them to a 75-70 victory over USC before a sold-out crowd of 9,087 at McArthur Court.

Jackson, a senior forward who led Oregon with 20 points, 18 after halftime, approached USC Coach Henry Bibby near the Trojans’ locker room after the game to pay his respects.

“I hate to see you go,” Bibby said as he shook Jackson’s hand, “but I’m glad to see you go.”

Even with Jackson’s exploits -- and despite being without guard Errick Craven, serving a Pacific 10 Conference-mandated one-game suspension for his actions in a game against California on Feb. 21 -- the Trojans were in the game.

In fact, they had a 12-point lead, 37-25, with less than two minutes remaining in the first half before committing a pair of turnovers while trying to build on their advantage.

Oregon then outscored USC, 8-2, to close the half and opened the second half with an 18-7 run, with 11 points from Jackson, to grab the lead.

And though the Ducks led by as many as 10 points, 61-51 with 7:23 to play, USC was within three, 73-70, and had the ball in the final 20 seconds.

But Rory O’Neil’s open three-point attempt from the top of the arc barely made it to the front of the rim. Oregon’s Andre Joseph grabbed the rebound, was fouled and made a pair of free throws with 16.4 seconds remaining to close things out.

“It felt good coming out of my hands,” said O’Neil, who had 10 points but was one for six from three-point territory. “I just rushed it.”

USC’s modest two-game winning streak came to an end as the Trojans fell to 12-14 overall, 7-10 in Pac-10 play. USC can still clinch a berth in the Pac-10 tournament with a win in Saturday’s season finale at Oregon State, or with a loss by UCLA or Washington State.

Oregon (13-9, 8-9), meanwhile, clinched its spot by putting a halt to its four-game losing streak.

“It took us a while to get going, but we got some easy baskets and hit some big shots,” Jackson said. “That got our confidence going.”

It also halted USC’s momentum.

“We just didn’t make shots at the end,” said Farmer, who had a game-high 25 points but missed 15 of 23 shots and committed eight turnovers. “Most of the time the guys were acting like they didn’t want to shoot. I guess it was just the heat of the moment.”

Junior power forward Jeff McMillan had his team-leading ninth double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds for USC, making all six of his field-goal attempts.

“We had them but we couldn’t pull it out,” said McMillan, who is averaging 13.4 rebounds over the last five games. “I don’t know if it was fatigue, [but] we just didn’t get it done at the end. We should have never been in that position to begin with.”

Bibby said the result might have gone USC’s way with a full complement of players.

“With Errick Craven, hopefully it’s a different ballgame,” Bibby said. “That’s a big play the league played on us.”