Long Shots Fail USC in Overtime

Gabe Pruitt had displayed the accuracy of an Enron accountant for most of Sunday afternoon, missing 15 of 18 shots and eight three-point shots.

But with USC trailing Cal State Northridge by three points in the closing seconds of overtime at the Sports Arena, there was no one Trojan Coach Tim Floyd would rather have hoisted the potential tying shot than the normally strong-shooting sophomore guard.

But Pruitt missed two more three-point tries, and the Matadors escaped with a season-opening 81-76 victory, their first win in five meetings against the Trojans.

“I thought both looks that Gabe had were terrific, he just didn’t get them down,” said Floyd, who was coaching his first collegiate game since leaving Iowa State in 1998 for the NBA. “I have no problem with him taking those shots at any time in the game.”

Transfer guard Mike Efevberha scored 20 points in his Northridge debut and sophomore swingman Jonathan Heard added 15 points for the Matadors, who became the second Big West Conference school to defeat a Pacific 10 Conference foe in two days. UC Irvine had upended Stanford on Saturday.

“It was great to have to win it in overtime because it gave us a chance to see what we were made of,” said Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell, whose team became the first to defeat USC in a home opener since New Mexico State in 1995.

Pruitt finished with 10 points on a three-for-20 shooting performance that was emblematic of a USC team that made only four of 27 three-point attempts, but the Trojans wouldn’t have forced overtime without a key assist by Pruitt in the waning moments of regulation.

After USC had whittled a 14-point second-half deficit to two by increasing its intensity on defense, Efevberha stepped to the free-throw line for the front end of a one and one with nine seconds left and a chance to extend Northridge’s 70-68 lead.

But Efevberha, who had made his only free throw earlier in the game and all 15 free throws during the Matadors’ two exhibition victories, missed, giving the Trojans one more chance.

Pruitt dribbled into the paint on the other end and drew multiple defenders before feeding freshman forward RouSean Cromwell underneath for a dunk with 0.8 of a second left. Cromwell finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds in 35 minutes off the bench.

“My whole mentality was to get to the basket and try to get to the foul line and maybe try to get a layup,” Pruitt said. “RouSean’s guy stepped up, so I saw an opportunity to dish it off.”

Northridge guard Bakari Altheimer’s three-quarter-court heave was well short at the buzzer.

Despite entering overtime without sophomore swingman Nick Young, who had fouled out with nine seconds left in regulation after scoring a team-high 18 points, the Trojans built a 73-70 lead on a basket inside by Lodrick Stewart (12 points) and a free throw by Ryan Francis (12 points).

Heard tied the score on a three-pointer from the wing and, after Pruitt gave USC a one-point advantage by making one of two free throws, Heard put the Matadors back up for good, 75-74, on a putback with 2:25 left.

Northridge guard Jason Hill’s short jump shot with 45 seconds left gave the Matadors a 79-76 lead and set the stage for Pruitt’s final misses.

“I’m very disappointed,” Pruitt said. “I feel like I’m one of the older guys and I feel like I have to lead this team, and I feel like I did a bad job of that.”

Even though Pruitt had missed all six of his shots in the first half, Floyd said he never wanted his star guard to stop shooting, especially with the game on the line.

“You don’t want to play with his confidence and tell him you don’t want him to shoot it the rest of the half,” Floyd said. “We have 26 games left.... I want him to take every shot that’s a winning shot, and those were winning shots for Gabe.”