Meet New Leaders of the Pac

Do you believe in mir . . .

Nah, that line has been used.

But if you believe in outstanding achievement by a depleted underdog against one of the top teams in the country, give the Oscar to USC for its performance Saturday--and for pulling off a stunning 80-72 upset victory over second-ranked Arizona before 9,105 at the Sports Arena.

Getting a career-high 27 points from Brian Scalabrine and a career-high 26 from David Bluthenthal, USC won its seventh in a row to move into first place in the Pacific 10 Conference as the only unbeaten team in conference play.

The Trojans, 12-5 overall, are 5-0 in the Pac-10 for the first time.

No one expected the Trojans to ever take a lead Saturday, much less hold a 69-65 advantage with 1:50 to play. Missing leading scorer Sam Clancy and top reserve Jarvis Turner, both of whom suffered foot injuries in Thursday’s win over Arizona State--USC was supposed to show up, get the loss over with and then go concentrate on the rest of the Pac-10 season.

Instead the Wildcats (16-3, 5-1), whose own seven-game winning streak ended, joined the rest of the conference in looking up at USC and looking on in wonderment.

“I’d like to thank all of you [media] people who wrote us off today,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said. “You gave us the inspiration tonight.”

Then again, it’s not as if there isn’t precedence for this kind of thing. In 1998, Arizona came into the Sports Arena ranked No. 2 and lost, 91-90, in overtime.

With construction on USC’s new on-campus arena expected to start this year, Arizona Coach Lute Olson will gladly throw a few sticks of dynamite at the Sports Arena. The Wildcats have lost three of their last four games there.

“We had talked about [USC losing Clancy and Turner] before the game,” Olson said. “We talked about how we responded after we lost Richard Jefferson. It obviously gets other guy’s adrenaline going. We told them, ‘Don’t forget USC has four [other] great players.’

“They shot almost 50% in the first half and 52% in the second half. We’ve been a good defensive team this year and kept teams from shooting well. But if USC got a halfway decent look, they completed it.”

The Trojans had to endure a 25-point outing from Wildcat freshman sensation Jason Gardner before he fouled out, and didn’t really stop center Loren Woods, who had 21 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

But USC shot better from the field than Arizona, 50% to 41.3%, stayed close on the boards (39-31), and other than freshman Gilbert Arenas (16 points), no other Wildcat did much offensively.

“When did I think we could win? Last night after watching film,” said Bluthenthal, who made nine of 12 shots and led USC with seven rebounds.

“Like us, they only play seven guys. And I thought our starters matched theirs. To me it was an even game.”

As Bibby described it before the game, the biggest problem facing USC was where to get the 18-20 points that Clancy provided nightly. “And Sam gets those points on his own,” Bibby said. “We don’t run plays for him.”

Still, the score was tied, 16-16, after five minutes. Bluthenthal and Trepagnier combined for 12 points to give USC an early offensive spark while Gardner scored nine early points for Arizona.

Then Scalabrine got hot, scoring the Trojans’ next 11 points on three three-point baskets and a dunk after driving the baseline. USC had moved ahead, 27-22.

But foul trouble was lurking even after a three-point basket by Bluthenthal gave USC a 37-29 lead, its biggest of the half. Granville had three early fouls, and Nate Hair, his main relief, also had three.

Arizona was also controlling the boards early--a 23-12 advantage at halftime--and Woods was having his way with Kostas Charissis or any other Trojan trying to guard him. The Wildcats finished the half with a 7-0 run to close to 37-36, probably figured the Trojans would be out of gas and were poised to take over the second half.

Gardner made Arizona’s run 10-0 with a three-pointer to give Arizona the lead back at 39-37 early in the second half before Scalabrine threw in a pair of jumpers to put USC back in front.

That sparked a 10-2 Trojan surge and USC led, 49-41, with 14:33 to play.

If the Trojans were going to go down, they would not go meekly.

It turned out they didn’t go down at all.

Pacific 10

Standings

School W-L

USC 5-0

Arizona 5-1

Stanford 4-1

Oregon 4-1

Arizona St. 3-3

UCLA 2-3

Oregon St. 1-3

California 1-4

Washington 1-4

Washington St. 0-6

Roundup, Page 10

RANK EFFORT BY USC

The short-handed Trojans turned in a performance that should put them in the top 25, Robyn Norwood writes. Page 10