USC picks up win at the drive through

Had Ryan Francis still been charging up the court for USC this season, Daniel Hackett would have been resting Saturday, one day after his Bellflower St. John Bosco High Braves faced Santa Ana Mater Dei in a Trinity League game.

But tragedy intervened and now Hackett found himself thrust into a hornet’s nest of chaos, with Haas Pavilion rocking after California had wiped out a 17-point second-half deficit to tie the score in the final minute against the No. 25 Trojans.

Many high school-age kids would buckle under the pressure. Hackett buckled down, converting a driving layup with 17 seconds left to give USC the go-ahead points in a potentially pivotal 76-73 victory over the Golden Bears.

After Cal guard Omar Wilkes’ desperation three-point attempt fell short at the buzzer, Hackett held up both sides of his jersey to give fans a better view of his school’s initials.

“I always kept myself ready to attack and make something happen,” said Hackett, the freshman guard who came off the bench to score six of the Trojans’ final seven points.

Hackett certainly wasn’t the only star for USC (16-6 overall, 6-3 Pacific 10 Conference), which salvaged a split of its trip to the Bay Area after Thursday’s 65-50 loss at Stanford and is tied for third place halfway through the Pac-10 schedule.

Senior guard Lodrick Stewart scored 21 points and junior swingman Nick Young scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half, punctuating his performance by taking a bow near midcourt.

But nobody stepped up like Hackett in the final minutes after Cal (12-9, 4-5) had clawed back from a 53-36 deficit with 13:11 remaining behind a flurry of seven three-pointers.

Hackett scored on a backdoor pass from Stewart and then made two free throws to give USC a 73-71 lead.

After a layin by Wilkes tied the score with 47 seconds left, USC Coach Tim Floyd called a timeout to set up an isolation play for Young, but the play broke down and Hackett found himself with the ball on the wing.

“The ball got swung to me and I guess they were so worried about Nick on the weak side that I had a lane, and I just went in there and tried to make something happen,” Hackett said. “I was able to go all the way.”

Cal freshman forward Ryan Anderson, who scored 19 points and helped key the comeback with several NBA-range three-pointers, attempted another long three on the Bears’ next possession but missed, and Young grabbed the rebound. Cal immediately fouled Young, who made one of two free throws with 3.5 seconds left to help prevent a colossal collapse.

“It could have been a devastating loss with that kind of lead,” Floyd said. “It could have been a self-doubt loss. Instead, it’s a great win. We were fortunate.”

The Bears’ comeback was all the more remarkable considering they had only eight scholarship players available because of injuries, and senior guard Ayinde Ubaka spent part of the second half in the locker room receiving intravenous fluids to combat dehydration.

USC looked as if it might lose freshman forward Taj Gibson midway through the first half after he was assessed a technical foul for shoving Cal’s Taylor Harrison. The officials watched replays to see if Gibson had thrown a punch but saw nothing that warranted an ejection.

“I told the ref I wasn’t trying to hit him,” Gibson said of Harrison, a former club teammate. “I’m not that type of player.”

Hackett finished with eight points, six rebounds, five assists and a lockdown defensive effort on Ubaka, who scored most of his nine points while being defended by other players. It was another moment to savor for a player who decided to start his college career a year early after Francis was fatally shot last spring and guard Gabe Pruitt was declared academically ineligible for the first semester.

“That’s all the experience he got earlier this year, the 13, 14 games he had to play without Gabe Pruitt,” Floyd said of Hackett. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in him.”

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ben.bolch@latimes.com