Trojans Not a Final 4:24 Team

Basketball is often described as a game of runs. And it’s usually a good thing when your team has the last one.

That’s why Oregon was able to hang a 90-83 defeat on USC in a Pacific 10 Conference opener Friday before 9,087 in McArthur Court.

Lodrick Stewart, who topped USC with 25 points, had put the Trojans ahead, 80-77, on a three-point basket with 4:24 left in the game. But USC (7-5) would score only one more basket after that -- another three-pointer by Stewart with 12 seconds to play.

By that time Oregon (9-1) had run off 11 consecutive points to lock up the victory. The key shot was a three-pointer by Aaron Brooks with 2:18 to play, giving the Ducks the lead back -- and for good -- at 82-80.

Oregon, which shot 56.3% and forced 16 Trojans turnovers (to compensate for being outrebounded, 29-20) also benefited down the stretch from two critical breakdowns by the Trojan offense, bad interior passes that were picked off by forward Maarty Leunen, as well as rushed, missed shots by Rory O’Neil and Gabriel Pruitt

USC interim Coach Jim Saia took the blame for the final four minutes.

“When we got up by three, I went away from our offense and to a couple of set plays,” Saia said. “And our guys didn’t really execute them. We have a young team, and I should have stayed with the basic format because they had trouble guarding our regular offense.

“I’m proud of my kids the way they fought back. As long as I’ve been the head coach, in the three losses that we’ve had our kids battled like crazy. And that’s all I can ask of them.”

Brooks had a strong all-around effort against the Trojans with 34 points in 35 minutes. He made nine of 13 shots from the field (four of seven from three-point range) and 12 of 13 from the free-throw line.

“That was probably the finest game I’ve seen by one of our point guards in this building,” Oregon Coach Ernie Kent said. “The [point total] tells me it came within our system.”

Saia, who recruited Brooks during his assistant days at UCLA -- “my No. 1 point guard” -- sighed when asked about the sophomore’s afternoon.

“I told him after the game, ‘You got me tonight,’ ” Saia said. “He doesn’t come to UCLA, then he buries 34 on me in my first Pac-10 game as a head coach.”

Helping out Brooks was freshman guard Bryce Taylor, who had 18 points. Leunen added 13.

Freshman Nick Young was the other Trojan with a big game, scoring a career-high 21 points and a grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. Fourteen of Young’s points came in the second half, when the Ducks gave Stewart plenty of defensive attention.

Afterward Young could only think about how the game slipped from the Trojans’ grasp.

“For my first Pac-10 game, I wanted to come in and make a statement. But things didn’t go our way,” Young said. “[In the last four minutes] we made some bad decisions, and got out of the plays we were doing earlier. We’ve got to learn from that and move on to the next game.”

In the beginning, the Ducks gave USC plenty of things to worry about. Brooks and Taylor were a step quicker than the Trojan defense; they were able to penetrate the lane consistently for layups or kickout passes to teammates for open shots.

Yet the Trojans trailed only 46-39 at the half. And USC, which shot 54.1%, overpowered the smaller Ducks on the boards and slowed down the game in the second half to get back into the contest.

All things considered, it was a pretty good conference opener for USC -- for 36 minutes.

“We’re in a tough environment, we fought all the way back and never quit,” Saia said.

“This is a team that’s only won 13 games each of the last two years, and we’re not quite there yet in knowing how to win. We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.”

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UP NEXT FOR USC

Sunday at Oregon State, 2 p.m. KMPC (1540), Gill Coliseum, Corvallis -- Last season the Trojans swept both games against the Beavers, including a 63-60 victory in Corvallis.