Disputed Call Proves Costly for USC, 64-62 : College basketball: Five-second violation lets Maryland set up winning basket. Trojans’ Miner misses shot at buzzer.

USC Coach George Raveling did his best to maintain his composure after a controversial five-second call led to a 64-62 loss to Maryland on Monday at the Sports Arena.

With the score 62-62, USC guard Robert Pack was dribbling about 25 feet from the basket as the Trojans tried to set up a play. Maryland guard Teyon McCoy was playing about five feet off Pack.

But it was close enough for referee Bobby Dibler, who called a five-second violation on Pack, giving Maryland the ball with 52.2 seconds left.

What did Raveling think of the call?

“Thank God for the gag rule (against criticizing officials) because they’d have two coaches in this town in trouble with the officials,” Raveling said. UCLA Coach Jim Harrick is on Pacific 10 Conference probation for such criticism.

“I will say this, though, I’m willing to bet some big-time money that Robert Pack wasn’t closely guarded. If I didn’t know better I’d have thought the game was at College Park (Md.), and I’ll let you read into that.”

Raveling said he thought Dibler didn’t properly interpret the five-second rule.

“The man has to be closely guarded and there’s no way (Pack) was closely guarded on that,” Raveling said. “In fact, he wasn’t even guarded, and that’s what makes it such an absurd play. (McCoy) was sagging off trying to keep us from getting the ball inside to (Ronnie) Coleman.”

Pack agreed.

“He wasn’t pressuring me tightly at all,” Pack said. “I don’t think he was close enough to call five seconds. When I heard the whistle I was wondering what the call was. I thought it was a foul down low.”

But it was a turnover.

The Terrapins ran the clock down to 21.9 seconds before calling time out. Maryland worked the ball to guard Walt Williams, who made a jumper over Calvin Banks from slightly inside the free-throw line to give Maryland a two-point lead with 12 seconds left.

“We executed the final play to perfection and then we played great defense in the final eight seconds,” Maryland Coach Gary Williams said.

USC called a timeout with 8.6 seconds left to set up a play, but guard Harold Miner missed an off-balance 18-foot jumper as the buzzer sounded.

“We knew the final play was going to Miner,” Gary Williams said. “When you have a great player like that, you have to use him. The kid is going to be a great player because he has a lot of courage.”

Actually, Miner was the second option on the final play.

The Trojans had planned to use Miner, who scored 25 points, as a decoy and let Pack take the last shot, but Pack couldn’t get open.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of time,” Raveling said. “It just didn’t work out.”

Miner said he was forced to alter his shot because of defensive pressure from forward Jerrod Mustaf.

“I thought he was going to block the shot so I had to readjust,” Miner said.

Center Tony Massenburg led Maryland with 20 points and 11 rebounds and forward Mustaf had 13 points.

Trailing by eight points, the Trojans outscored Maryland, 10-2, to make the score 40-40. Coleman, who had 20 points, scored eight points in the spurt before going to the bench after picking up his third foul.

“I thought our kids did a great job of coming right back at the start of the half and putting ourselves back into a competitive position to win the game,” Raveling said.

Trojan Notes

USC, which dropped its second consecutive game, fell to 9-13. Six of USC’s defeats have been by six points or fewer. Maryland, which ended a four-game losing streak by beating North Carolina Saturday, is 15-11. USC Coach George Raveling, who withdrew as a candidate for the Maryland job before Coach Gary Williams was hired last June, thinks Williams is doing a doing a good job with the Terrapins, who were picked to finish last in the Atlantic Coast Conference. “Maryland’s a fine team,” Raveling said. “I can see how they beat North Carolina. They have three NBA draft choices in (Walt) Williams, (Tony) Massenburg and (Jerrod) Mustaf.” . . . Center Chris Munk had 12 rebounds and forward Calvin Banks grabbed 10 as USC outrebounded Maryland, 52-34. . . . The Trojans shot a season-low .302, making just 19 of 63 shots.