Cal Slows Miner, Stops Trojans, 74-60 : USC: Bears trail by seven points at halftime but take control with defense in a 50-29 second half.

BERKELEY —  USC basketball Coach George Raveling sensed the Trojans were in trouble after he gazed into the eyes of freshman guard Harold Miner.

Facing a defense designed to stop him for the third consecutive game, Miner finally cracked in a 74-60 loss to Cal Thursday night before a sellout crowd of 6,578 at Harmon Arena.

“I could see in Harold’s face that he was frustrated,” Raveling said. “He kept his poise when Arizona and Arizona State used a box-and-one defense against him last weekend, but in this game he reached a level of frustration.”

After Miner scored 10 points in the first half, helping the Trojans to a seven-point halftime lead, Cal Coach Lou Campanelli changed defenses, alternating guards Ryan Drew and Bill Elleby against him. Cal’s other four players were in a zone.

Miner scored only seven points in the second half.

“I thought we did a much better job on Harold Miner in the second half than we did in the first half,” Campanelli said. “You can’t leave Harold alone on the perimeter because he’s an explosive scorer for a freshman.”

But Raveling didn’t think Cal’s defense on Miner had as much to do with the loss as did the Trojans’ inability to play defense in the second half.

“I really don’t believe that that had as much to do with us losing as our inability to make good judgments with the basketball and handle defensive assignments,” Raveling said. “I was really disappointed in our defense based on how much time we put in.”

USC’s defense collapsed in the second half as the Golden Bears outscored the Trojans, 50-29. After shooting only 38.5% in the first half, Cal shot 62.1% in the second half, making 18 of 29 shots.

“Cal is far and away the most improved team in the conference from last year to this year,” Raveling said.

Guard Keith Smith scored 20 points for Cal, and freshman center Brian Hendrick had 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Raveling was impressed by Hendrick, a 6-foot-8 redshirt freshman from Diamond Bar High.

“Hendrick shows great poise for a freshman,” Raveling said. “He’s certainly going to be someone who’s going to keep some coaches up late at night for the next four years.”

Raveling may be staying up late trying to figure out what is wrong with USC forward Ronnie Coleman.

Hampered by foul trouble, Coleman failed to score for the first 37 minutes of the game before finally getting a layup with three minutes left for his only points. It was his worst game since he failed to score against UCLA as a freshman.

Averaging 17.3 points this season, Coleman has scored a total of 24 points in his last three games.

“I’m concerned about Ronnie Coleman,” Raveling said. “This is three straight games that he’s been in early foul trouble and as a result he hasn’t made a meaningful contribution because he’s always in foul trouble.”

Perhaps anticipating a Sunday showdown against UCLA, Cal overlooked USC in the first half. Trailing 11-4, the Trojans outscored the Bears, 27-13, to take a 31-24 lead at intermission.

USC’s offense struggled in the first 10 minutes of the game, producing six points. USC went six minutes without scoring during one stretch and committed seven turnovers.

The Trojans had trouble penetrating the Golden Bears’ two-three zone defense.

But Miner started hitting from the outside, making three-point shots from each corner as the Trojans blitzed Cal, 14-2, to take a 20-16 lead.

Surprisingly, Cal didn’t come out of its zone defense after the Trojans started hitting their outside shots.

But USC couldn’t stand success in the second half.

Leading, 36-26, early in the second half, USC quickly fell apart, as Cal outscored the Trojans, 8-0, on the way to a 22-6 run.

“I think we had as much to do with our demise as Cal did,” Raveling said. “It was kind of an equal-opportunity situation. We contributed a lot to it and they contributed a lot to it.”