Stanford Shows It Can Take Pressue

It was during pregame warmups Saturday when Stanford assistant Tony Fuller let slip a supposed secret to a USC walk-on.

Psst. Chris Hernandez has been battling stomach flu symptoms and might not play against the Trojans.

Gamesmanship? Absolutely.

The truth? Not at all.

Hernandez, the junior point guard, started, starred and led the Cardinal to a come-from-behind 78-70 defeat of the Trojans before 3,447 at the Sports Arena.

“We just needed to calm down,” said Hernandez, who had 20 points, 18 in the second half, to go with six assists and five steals in 35 minutes.

“We needed to take our time and make good passes and attack their press.”

USC has always had its greatest success against Stanford when it employs versions of a full-court press defense against the half-court-oriented and often-plodding Cardinal.

It worked again, at least for 34 minutes.

The Trojans, who fell to 9-10 overall, 2-6 in the Pacific 10 Conference, flummoxed the Cardinal by pressing early and often.

USC led by as many as eight points, 25-17, with 5:19 remaining in the first half, took a 33-29 lead into halftime, and held a six-point advantage, 52-46, with 12:03 remaining in the game.

But as Hernandez intimated, all Stanford (10-7, 4-3) had to do was wait for USC to implode.

A Rory O’Neil baseline jumper gave the Trojans a 61-59 advantage with 6:34 remaining but USC would not get another field goal for 5 1/2 minutes. By the time senior power forward Jeff McMillan banked in a shot with just over a minute to play, Stanford had built an insurmountable 10-point lead, 72-62.

The Trojans made things interesting, though, getting back within five points with the ball and less than 40 seconds remaining, but the hole they dug for themselves at the free-throw line in the second half was simply too deep to crawl out of.

USC missed eight of 12 free throws after halftime.

“This was a tough one,” interim Coach Jim Saia said wearily after the Trojans’ modest two-game winning streak had ended. “We let one slip away, a big-time opportunity. They shot 59.3% in the second half. You can’t win games that way.

“There was a moment of toughness, a moment of truth in the game. We’re up six and we just don’t keep our heads.”

The play of Trojan freshman point guard Gabe Pruitt had the Cardinal players scratching their heads.

Pruitt came off the bench to score a career-high 23 points, on eight-of-11 shooting, and made five three-pointers, in 25 minutes.

“There were a couple of defensive plays where we let up, relaxed, and they’re a great shooting team,” Pruitt said. “It hurts, but we did it to ourselves. Our downfall the whole season has been not playing a full 40 minutes.”

McMillan, who suffered a broken left hand early this season, had his 12th career double-double, his second of the season, going for 10 points and 12 rebounds in 26 minutes.

In the first half, USC was patient in its half-court offense, wearing down a Stanford team that, for all practical purposes, goes only six players deep.

The crowd appreciated the Trojans’ effort at halftime, awarding them with a standing ovation as they left the court.

But it was not to be. And the Trojans would not get their first in-season sweep of the Bay Area schools since 1997 or their first three-game winning streak in conference play since 2002.

“Hernandez is a great player, really smart,” Pruitt said.

Said Saia: “We just couldn’t bring the game home.”