USC’s Young Finishes Strong

Nick Young went to bed Friday night an inspired young man after watching tape of Kobe Bryant’s 62-point performance that was accomplished in only three quarters last month against the Dallas Mavericks.

The USC sophomore swingman then went out Saturday evening at the Sports Arena and emulated many of the Laker star’s fancy moves on his way to a career-high 32 points against Washington State.

Unlike his favorite player, Young finished his game, and it was a good thing for the Trojans, who needed him until the final seconds of the 71-66 victory.

With USC clinging to a two-point lead and less than a minute to play, Trojan freshman guard Ryan Francis stole the ball from Cougar guard Josh Akognon and found Young cutting toward the basket.

Young dunked, drew a foul and made the free throw for a three-point play with 15 seconds remaining to help the Trojans end a four-game skid against the Cougars.

“I saw a different player,” Trojan sophomore guard Gabe Pruitt said of his teammate. “He had a little one-dribble pull-up, shot a couple of threes and went to the basket and finished strong.”

Young scored 19 points in the second half and made 10 of 17 shots overall for the Trojans, who overcame a four-point halftime deficit.

“I thought it was the most aggressive he’s been in terms of trying to get himself to the rim and not just pulling up,” USC Coach Tim Floyd said of Young, whose point total was the most by a Cougar opponent in the last three seasons.

Said Washington State Coach Dick Bennett: “We couldn’t guard him. Nobody could handle him.”

The Trojans, who improved to 12-5 overall and 3-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference and matched their victory total from last season, committed a season-low seven turnovers and held the Cougars to 30.8% shooting and 25 points in the second half.

“I thought we were more patient on defense,” said Pruitt, who had 20 points. “As the shot clock ran down we didn’t try to get a steal, we just stayed poised and guarded the whole shot clock.”

Akognon finished with 19 points for Washington State (9-5, 2-3), which lost for the first time in eight games this season after leading at halftime.

USC finds itself tied with Arizona for sixth place in the conference, one game behind leader UCLA. The Trojans can catch the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday.

“We told them that going into our game, everybody in front of us had two [conference] losses, so unless they wanted to just go hang out at spring break, they still had a shot at this thing,” Floyd said.

Young supplied the Trojans with the firepower they needed down the stretch, scoring six consecutive points on a dunk, a three-pointer as the shot clock expired and a free throw to give the Trojans a 62-56 lead with 7:08 left.

“I was trying to be more aggressive,” Young said. “I was just feeling it.”

Washington State made it 68-66 on a three-pointer by Akognon with 1:07 left and fouled Francis three seconds later, sending him to the free-throw line for a one-and-one opportunity.

Francis missed the front end but grabbed the rebound and fed center Abdoulaye N’diaye, who missed. Washington State got the rebound and the chance to tie but Francis stole the ball from Akognon on the same crossover dribble move that had previously fooled him twice.

“It worked two times, so I was patient,” Francis said. “I saw him put it in front of me and that’s when I got it.”

Francis then found Young for a fitting end to a spectacular performance.