Postseason hopes could hinge on winning at home

USC heads into the second half of Pacific 10 Conference play ensnarled in a three-way tie with Washington State and Stanford for third place, only one game behind conference co-leaders Oregon and UCLA.

Of course, the Trojans also are only one game ahead of sixth-place Arizona, making a successful homestand against Oregon State on Thursday and No. 9 Oregon on Saturday all the more essential to their hopes of securing an NCAA tournament berth.

Although USC (16-6 overall, 6-3 Pac-10) has exceeded most expectations -- the Trojans were picked to finish sixth in the preseason conference media poll -- players cautioned against complacency.

“Everyone’s trying to scrap for wins from here on out,” senior guard Lodrick Stewart said Tuesday. “Any team can come out on top. We can lay an egg and go 0-5. You never know.”

With a remaining road schedule that includes games at UCLA, Arizona, Washington and Washington State, the Trojans realize that their postseason aspirations could hinge on winning as many games as possible at the Galen Center.

“Our four home games, we have to try to get some wins out of those,” junior swingman Nick Young said.

Trojans players said they have been buoyed by recently playing in front of the kind of rabid home crowds long enjoyed by UCLA, Arizona and Washington. And the decibel level figures to only rise because the Oregon, Stanford and California games at the Galen Center have already sold out.

“It’s going to be very important down the stretch that we have this place packed because our easiest ticket to the [NCAA] tournament is winning our four home games,” Coach Tim Floyd said.

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After yielding their worst defensive field-goal percentages of the season in consecutive games against Stanford and California, the Trojans tightened their defensive focus in practice Tuesday.

“We’ve got to get back to guarding people,” Floyd said. “That is our emphasis.”

Stanford shot 48.1% from the field amid a flurry of dunks and easy put-backs. California shot 51.9% -- becoming the only team to make at least half its shots against the Trojans this season -- after making seemingly every perimeter attempt.

“We watched film on ourselves and we saw a lot of mistakes,” Stewart said. “You could point out like one or two clips on everybody.”

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Junior guard Gabe Pruitt sat out practice because of a stomach virus that also afflicted several other players, Floyd said.... The Trojans dropped out of the Associated Press top 25 poll in the wake of their Bay Area split but still received votes in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls.... Forward Taj Gibson’s 44 blocked shots are a school freshman record.

ben.bolch@latimes.com