USC stuns the Huskies in Washington

Reporting from Seattle — 

USC walked into Bank of America Arena as if it owned the joint Thursday, made itself comfortable, then bullied and bloodied the Washington Huskies before stealing a rare road win it nearly gave away.

Mike Gerrity hit a clutch jumper with 15.2 seconds left to put USC up 65-61. Following a timeout, two Washington players missed desperation shots, and Dwight Lewis grabbed a key rebound and secured the 67-64 win with two free throws.

For USC (16-9 overall, 8-5 in Pacific 10 Conference) the road win is its first win outside of Los Angeles County (the Trojans are now 2-6 on the road, the other win being at UCLA).

But with California losing to Oregon State, 80-64 Thursday, the Trojans are now a half-game back of first place.

“Winning on the road is very important, but what’s real important is that Cal lost tonight too, so it’s important that we’re still in the race after 13 games when nobody thought this team could do that,” USC Coach Kevin O’Neill said.

Nobody thought Washington (17-9, 7-7) could lose at home either. The Huskies were 16-1 at home coming in, and were winning by 18.3 points per game in those contests.

Yet the Trojans roared out of the gate, and behind an aggressive offense and a brutishly physical defense, used a 19-5 run in the first half to take a 26-17 lead with 5:04 left before halftime. That run was capped by a nifty up-and-under scoop shot by Lewis that silenced the sellout crowd of 10,000.

As the shot sunk, Lewis roared down the court, fists clenched.

USC’s bench roared back.

“I was just screaming to get the team hyped and keep our momentum going because we knew they were going to make a run in the second half,” said Lewis, who finished with a game-high 22 points on nine-of-16 shooting.

Lewis was right. Washington made a run in the second half behind a deafening crowd that was probably heard in Vancouver.

It quaked the arena when the Huskies’ Quincy Pondexter buried a three-point jumper from the corner with 5:16 left, capping a 13-2 run that cut USC’s lead to 56-51.

But on USC’s next possession, Gerrity found Nikola Vucevic in the corner, and the 6-foot-10 sophomore buried his own three-point jumper while many in the crowd buried their heads in their hands.

The game was back and forth from there, until Gerrity’s jumper sealed it.

Make no mistake, the team had been close: Blown leads at Stanford and California, and untimely technical fouls at Oregon and Oregon State.

“Unbelievable,” said Gerrity, who scored 12 points on five-of-11 shooting. “Especially with the fight they had in them and down the stretch to make it a close game. It showed a lot of poise by our team and a lot of maturity for us to step up and close out a game.”

Thursday, they took advantage.

baxter.holmes@latimes.com