Arizona Ends Trojans’ Season

Any questions about how disinterested Arizona was in playing in the Pacific 10 Conference tournament were answered before the Wildcats took the court against USC in the fourth and final first-round game Thursday.

With 27.4 seconds remaining in the UCLA-Washington game and Arizona waiting in its Staples Center tunnel, Andre Iguodala chatted away on a cell phone.

Turns out the Wildcats didn’t need to be totally dialed in. Not with freshman point guard Mustafa Shakur making a three-point basket at the buzzer to beat the Trojans, 79-76, before a pro-Arizona crowd of 13,625.

The final play was set up and helped by USC, which held possession with 39.7 seconds to play but could not get a shot off, calling a timeout with 4.7 seconds remaining. Arizona had no timeouts remaining.

USC did not pressure the inbounds pass and Shakur was allowed to run the length of the court virtually unguarded as he unleashed his shot from the top of the arc.

That the sixth-seeded Trojans were still in the game -- despite leading scorer Desmon Farmer suffering through a two-for-20 shooting night, 0 for 12 from beyond the arc, and getting four points -- spoke volumes.

Still, the book closed on Farmer’s USC career and the Trojans’ season as they finished a disappointing 13-15.

Freshman shooting guard Lodrick Stewart led USC with a career high-tying 20 points off the bench.

Third-seeded and No. 21-ranked Arizona, meanwhile, improved to 20-8, giving the Wildcats a 20-win season for the 17th straight year.

Arizona was led by Hassan Adams’ double-double of 21 points and 14 rebounds.

USC Coach Henry Bibby went with bulk early, starting the 6-feet-8, 245-pound Gregg Guenther at center rather than the 6-11, 240-pound Rory O’Neil or the 7-0, 230-pound Jonathan Oliver.

None of that mattered to Arizona guard Salim Stoudamire, who came to the conference tournament with his left wrist in a brace and had talked earlier in the week about challenging Farmer, who torched the Wildcats for 40 points in the Trojans’ 97-90 win at the Sports Arena on Jan. 15.

“I love guarding guys that the media hypes because I don’t really think they’re that good,” Stoudamire told reporters in Tucson.

“It’ll be fun after I shut [Farmer] down.”

Farmer did not take kindly to the remarks, which a member of Bibby’s staff relayed to him.

But it didn’t matter, at least not in the first half.

Farmer missed 11 of 12 shots from the field, including all seven from beyond the arc, and he ended the first half with only two points, 18 below his season average.

The Trojans’ Errick Craven has had his own running war of words with Stoudamire since the Pac-10 tournament title game two years ago (“I told him, ‘I’m going to lock you up. You’re going to get a doughnut, zero points,’ ” Craven said. “Then we went to a zone [defense] and I wasn’t guarding him anymore and he just stood in the corner and started lighting us up”). Craven was inspired by game tapes of last year’s tournament that the Trojan coaching staff showed, pointing out his quickness in defending the ball.

But with Farmer’s early shooting trouble and Craven’s picking up two early fouls, the Trojans were bothered mightily by the Wildcats’ man-to-man defense.

With USC leading, 7-4, Arizona went small and took off on a 23-7 run to grab a half-high 13-point advantage, 27-14, after an Adams jumper.

The Trojans, though, rode the spark provided by reserve Lodrick Stewart, who had nine first-half points, and were able to take advantage of Arizona center Channing Frye picking up his second foul late in the half as USC trailed by four at the end of the half.

USC, which started O’Neil at center for the second half, opened up with an 11-3 run to go up by four, 47-43, after an O’Neil three-pointer from the top of the arc at the 17:03 mark.

Arizona was in foul trouble early in the second half.

Frye picked up his third foul at 18:18, Stoudamire got his second at 17:37 and Iguodala got his third at 17:24.

They all stayed in the game.

The Wildcats, who had so much success with their man defense early on, had to go to a zone.

Iguodala fouled out with 3:20 remaining, though the Trojan advantage lasted all of 13 seconds before Errick Craven picked up his fifth foul.

Lodrick Stewart’s three-pointer from the right corner with 1:56 to go got the Trojans within two, 76-74, then his 15-footer tied the score at 76.