Trojans Are No Longer Poor Devils

A new coach and a Pacific 10 Conference victory all in the same week for USC.

The Trojans introduced Tim Floyd and then became reacquainted with winning under interim Coach Jim Saia, getting their first conference victory, 98-94, Saturday night against Arizona State in front of 8,752 in Wells Fargo Arena.

Freshman forward Nick Young scored a career-high 22 points and freshman point guard Gabe Pruitt made 11 of 12 free throws in the second half to help USC hold off the Sun Devils.

The Trojans (8-9 overall, 1-5 in the conference) had five players score in double figures and shot well from the field in ending their Pac-10 losing streak at five games. Their best work, however, came on the defensive end in swarming Arizona State All-American forward-center Ike Diogu.

Diogu had averages of 22.8 points and 10.3 rebounds before the game, but he took only seven shots against USC and had 15 points and five rebounds before fouling out with 1 minute 53 seconds to play.

The Trojans are last in the Pac-10 and face a formidable challenge to qualify for the postseason conference tournament, but they finally had something to smile about.

“This team is still competing,” said Saia, who will guide the team for the remainder of the season. “This is a good basketball team with a lot of good players. We’ve played good basketball for 11 out of 13 games since I’ve been a head coach.

“We played well at Arizona and we obviously played very well tonight. What a great victory. For this basketball team to get our first Pac-10 win on the road ... just a really great victory.”

After having suffered blowout losses to Washington and Washington State at the Sports Arena, USC played well at times in Thursday’s 77-68 loss to Arizona in McKale Center but made too many mistakes down the stretch.

The Trojans were more efficient against Arizona State (13-4, 2-3), which lost to UCLA in its previous game.

They took a 46-41 halftime lead as sophomore guard Lodrick Stewart was the only player to score in double figures, getting 12 of his 19 points and making four of seven three-point shots in the half. Stewart finished with five three-pointers and the Trojans made eight in 16 tries.

The Trojans backed off the Sun Devils’ perimeter players, daring them to shoot, and double- and triple-teamed Diogu when he had the ball inside. Diogu took three shots and scored four points in the first half.

“We call it ‘Monster Double,’ ” Saia said of his defensive plan to stop Diogu. “We wanted to really secure the inside and make those guys shoot the ball.

“He’s a player-of-the-year candidate, everyone is talking about him for the Wooden Award, so we didn’t want to let him beat us.”

The Trojans , who have won four of their last five at Arizona State, frustrated Diogu.

“It was tough for the point guard to get me the ball,” he said. “They don’t want to force anything.... That’s just the way it is sometimes.”

Coach Rob Evans expressed disappointment in the Sun Devils’ leader.

“He didn’t work hard,” said Evans, whose team gave up its most points at home since 1988. “I don’t know what his deal was. He has to work hard when he’s getting double- and triple-teamed.”

Young, who led the Trojans with 18 points in the loss to Arizona, took over in the second half against Arizona State, scoring 19 points.

His three-point play, after being fouled on a highlight-tape reverse layup, gave the Trojans their biggest lead, 85-74, and triggered an exodus from the arena with 2:39 remaining.