USC Can’t Fool Arizona

As his team piled up victories at an unexpected rate, Tim Floyd continually referred to USC’s record as “a lie” because his undermanned Trojans had won so many games they could have easily lost.

There was no need to worry about fooling anybody Saturday afternoon at the McKale Center.

USC stuck with Arizona for a half before the Trojans’ deficiencies were exposed in the final 20 minutes of a 74-63 loss to the No. 21 Wildcats that seemed more lopsided than the final score indicated.

Arizona flustered USC with suffocating defense, causing 13 second-half turnovers and forcing the Trojans to hoist more three-pointers than they would have liked, many with the shot clock winding down and players standing idly around the perimeter.

“Toward the end we got a little sloppy, a little careless with the ball, and that hurt us,” said sophomore guard Gabe Pruitt, whose 19 points were offset by five turnovers.

As Arizona rattled off a game-clinching 10-0 run midway through the second half, the reality of competing in the Pacific 10 Conference with an inexperienced team that lacks a post presence might have sunk in a bit for the Trojans, who fell to 11-4 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

Big men Abdoulaye N’diaye, Keith Wilkinson and Jeremy Barr combined for only two shots inside the three-point arc, missing both.

“If we had a guy that we could throw it to on the block, it would change us a little bit,” Floyd said. “But we can’t play off the block very well, and as a result we’ve become a perimeter-shooting team. That’s OK if we can still get ourselves to the [free-throw] line, which we didn’t do a very good job of tonight.”

The Trojans shot 17 three-pointers in the second half and made only six. They had only 14 free throws in the game, one fewer than Arizona (10-4, 3-1) took in the second half, in part because their big men weren’t active inside and their guards weren’t slashing to the basket.

Sophomore swingman Nick Young, who had nine points at halftime, didn’t touch the ball much in the second half and finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

USC still had a chance trailing by nine points with more than five minutes to play and possession of the ball under the basket. But Arizona stole guard Dwayne Shackleford’s inbounds pass and converted it into a high-flying layup by guard Hassan Adams.

“Our defensive pressure was what won us this game,” said Arizona guard Mustafa Shakur, who scored a team-high 17 points one game after being shut out by UCLA. “We were getting steals, layups and dunks. We got everyone involved. We played with more energy tonight.”

All five starters scored in double figures for the Wildcats, who shot 52.8% and looked as if they might blow the game open in the first 10 minutes as they knocked down open jump shot after open jump shot.

A jumper by freshman forward Marcus Williams gave Arizona an early eight-point cushion, but the Trojans fought back and eventually went ahead briefly on Wilkinson’s three-pointer before the Wildcats took a 32-30 lead into the locker room.

USC’s first couple of possessions in the second half were telling. Freshman guard Ryan Francis turned the ball over on a five-second call and then threw up a wild layup attempt that missed badly. When the Trojans got the ball back, Lodrick Stewart turned it over again.

“We got a little rattled,” said Francis, who made only one of eight shots. “We had several key turnovers back to back, and that kind of kicked up their momentum. The crowd got behind them and they got rolling.”

Said Arizona Coach Lute Olson: “That was as good a defensive effort that I have seen for a while. We communicated well and we had great effort from all players.”