After a Flat Start, Trojans Get Rolling

Gabe Pruitt and Lodrick Stewart showed up a tad late to the Sports Arena on Thursday night.

Pruitt’s car had a flat tire. No doubt California would like to have slashed all four.

Pruitt and Stewart put on a show against the Golden Bears, leading the Trojans out of the Pacific 10 Conference basement, while ushering Cal into it, with an impressive 83-66 victory before 3,127.

“It was kinda scary; I had never had a flat tire before,” said Pruitt, who was giving Stewart a ride to the game. “We were on the freeway and a nail got stuck in my tire and I just had to coast off the exit.”

Pruitt and Stewart were more than nails in the Bears’ side, Stewart going for a game-high 23 points, including going four for four on three-point attempts, while getting season highs in rebounds (seven) and steals (four). Pruitt, meanwhile, came off the bench to contribute 11 points, four assists and two steals in 26 minutes.

“It was defense tonight,” said Stewart, who has six 20-point games this season, “diving on the floor, giving up the body.

“Every game is a must-win from now on. I don’t care who we’re playing. We had fun tonight.”

The Trojans won their second consecutive game to improve to 9-9 overall, 2-5 in Pac-10 play.

Cal, led by Marquise Kately’s 12 points, fell to 8-8, 1-5.

Still, the Golden Bears were missing two key players -- leading scorer Richard Midgley (sprained right shoulder) and sophomore forward Dominic McGuire (coach’s decision).

Not that USC’s Craven twins missed Midgley.

A year ago, Derrick and Errick Craven served one-game suspensions after altercations with the shooting guard.

“I got a call from my mom before the game,” said Errick Craven, who had 12 points off the bench. “She said, ‘I’ve got to talk to you; don’t do anything tonight.’ I was like, ‘Mom, I’m not even thinking about him.’ ”

Indeed, the Trojans seemed to be thinking about anything other than the task at hand at tipoff. USC fell behind by as many as 11 points on two occasions, the last at 17-6.

But after interim Coach Jim Saia made wholesale changes to his lineup, subbing out four starters (Derrick Craven, Nick Young, Nick Curtis and Gregg Guenther with Pruitt, Errick Craven, Jeff McMillan and Rory O’Neil), the Trojans jelled.

USC embarked on a 14-2 run, keyed by a pair of three-pointers from Stewart, the lone starter not pulled after the Trojans’ phlegmatic start, and USC suddenly had a lead.

It was short-lived, however, as the Bears shot 51.7% from the field in the first half and held a 35-33 halftime advantage.

Saia kept his same starting lineup for the second half and it did not disappoint.

With Cal nursing a 45-44 lead at the 16:51 mark, USC took off and never looked back.

The Trojans’ 24-7 run, over a span of seven-plus minutes, began with an O’Neil bucket, concluded with a Curtis three-point play and gave USC an insurmountable 16-point cushion, 68-52, with 8:59 remaining.

Cal never got closer than 11 points.

“The beauty is that we’ve finally got a healthy squad,” Saia said. “You’re subbing out starters for starters. There’s a lot of firepower there. I want them to go hard for five or six minutes and then the cavalry’s coming in.”

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Former USC coach Bob Boyd, who led the Trojans from 1967 to 79, attended his first game in recent memory. He is close friends with incoming coach Tim Floyd.... Junior point guard Dwayne Shackleford (knee) is still undecided about applying for a medical redshirt.