Miller Celebrates Occasion With Win Over USC

CORVALLIS, Ore. —  Nights like this were supposed to be behind George Raveling.

His Trojans had won two Pacific 10 Conference basketball games in a row, had found their shooting eye, and had the USC coach talking of a sweep in Oregon.

But Thursday night belonged to Oregon State Coach Ralph Miller.

Miller had been selected, earlier in the day, to the Basketball Hall of Fame. And, by defeating USC, 84-57, he won the 643rd game of a 37-year career, moving past Marv Harshman of Washington into seventh place in all-time National Collegiate Athletic Assn. victories.

“Before the game, Coach Miller told us he’d been inducted into the Hall of the Fame, and he told us, ‘I want to win,’ ” said Eric Knox, the OSU guard whose three-pointer had defeated USC, 80-77, in overtime a month ago at Loyola Marymount. “When he says that, we’d better go all-out. He’s so bubbly now, he’ll probably go out dancing.”

Don’t count on it. Miller, 68, already had his team concentrating on Sunday’s game against UCLA.

“We do well on special occasions,” said Knox. “He coached his 1,000th game against Cal, and we blew them out (82-46). Hopefully, he’ll be inducted into something new for the UCLA game.”

The Beavers hounded USC into 26 turnovers and gradually increased their lead through the final 27 minutes.

“I think it was probably a combination of good defense and transition by the Beavers and our inability to make good decisions with the ball,” Raveling said. “Every time we got the ball into an advantageous position, we made an ill-advised play.”

The Trojans had won three straight times in Corvallis--soothing the indignation of nine straight losses to the Beavers in Los Angeles--and had reversed a trend of terrible field-goal shooting by averaging 54% in their last three games.

USC shot 50% again but got 19 fewer shots than the Beavers. USC was 24 for 48 from the floor, and OSU was 38 for 67 (.567).

“I really thought, coming into this road trip, that we’d turned things around,” Raveling said. “But it was a disjointed performance. We weren’t a cohesive unit. I felt, based on our last three games, that we’d never reach back to this level of play.”

Knox stole the ball from the Trojans 5 times, and Gary Payton had 3 steals and 13 assists. The other OSU starters had two steals each, and all five scored in double figures.

“We kept looking up the floor, then passing the ball back. We came close to a number of 10-second violations,” said Raveling, whose team was called for 5-second, 10-second and 45-second violations before the night was over. “Our heads just weren’t in it tonight.”

When the Trojans turned the ball over, they usually paid the price.

“The Beavers did a tremendous job of converting after turnovers,” Raveling said. “I’d guess they converted 70% of the time. They’re probably the best team in the league at converting turnovers.”

Miller, coaching his 1,001st game, said Thursday’s selection by the Hall of Fame “is probably the highlight of my career. Any time a coach has spent time in the profession he hopes he’ll be inducted, but he doesn’t count on it. When it’s a reality, you’re very grateful.”

The Beavers took advantage of 12 Trojan turnovers to control the first half, 37-30.

USC made a brief run after Andy Olivarez had taken a breather. He re-entered the game with 7:40 left in the half and the Trojans trailing, 26-20, and quickly hit a three-pointer. He then stole the ball for a layup that tied the score, 26-26, with 6:32 remaining.

But USC turned the ball over five times in the next four minutes as the Beavers ran ahead, 37-29, with 40 seconds left before halftime.

USC had jammed the ball inside to lead 15-13 after six minutes, but the Beavers got seven points out of three straight fast breaks--two of them the result of steals--to go ahead, 21-15.

The Trojans shot 54% (13 for 24) in the half, but Oregon State got 10 more shots than the Trojans and were more productive despite 47% (16-for-34) shooting.

In the second half, Oregon State made 13 of its first 15 shots.

The Beavers are 5-4 in Pac-10 games and 11-7 overall. USC is 3-7 in the Pac-10 and 5-14 overall.