University Southern California Trojans
USC
Oregon
Men's Basketball Can't Shake Oregon
January 27, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2000
By TARA BURGHART
Associated Press Writer
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Oregon's Frederick Jones does not make the same mistake twice.
Southern California was trying to set up a shot to win the game Thursday night when Jones knocked the ball away. The Ducks emerged from the scramble with possession - and a 68-67 win over the 23rd-ranked Trojans.
Earlier in the game, Jones and Alex Scales were scolded by coach Ernie Kent after allowing an easy layup.
"We talked about being diligent and about not messing up the second time. So I just rotated down and got a hand on the ball," Jones said.
Scales scored 18 points and A.D. Smith added 15 for Oregon (14-3, 5-1 Pac-10).
The loss broke a seven-game winning streak for USC (12-6, 5-1), which was off to its best conference start.
Oregon led by four points at halftime, but the lead see-sawed during the first 12 minutes of the second half.
Oregon took a 66-61 lead - the biggest either team had the entire game - with 3:53 to play as the Trojans went more than four minutes without scoring.
"They played a lot of different defenses that actually helped us get a lot of good looks and we were hitting shots at the right time," Jones said.
USC was able to close to 66-65 on a basket and two free throws by David Bluthenthal, but an inside basket by Julius Hicks pushed the Ducks' lead to three.
Nate Hair of the Trojans missed two free throws, and nine seconds later Brandon Granville missed his first of two when the Trojans complained that jumping fans in tiny McArthur Court were causing the baskets to shake.
After Kent asked the fans to stop jumping, Granville was allowed to shoot again, and he made both free throws to make it 68-67.
Bibby said after the game that the jumping probably affected Hair's shots, too.
"I hated getting on that microphone to tell the fans to calm down," Kent said. "I hope the fans jump hard enough to bring the baskets all the way down. If we can make that kind of noise, that's great because it makes our home environment that much better."
Oregon was leading 68-67 when Brian Scalabrine of Southern California missed a jumper with 10 seconds left. The Trojans got another chance when Oregon's Darius Wright missed a free throw, but that is when Jones got his hand on the ball.
"Neither of us had a timeout, so we knew the game was going to be decided in the last seconds," Smith said. "We played it about as well as we could have."
"You always want a chance to win at the end. We just didn't execute," said Scalabrine, who led the Trojans with 18 points.
Bluthenthal added 17 points and nine rebounds for USC, and Hair had 13 points, nine on 3-pointers.
The Trojans, who shot 52 percent from the field in the first half, shot just 39.3 percent in the second half. The Ducks' shooting also suffered in the second half - 41.4 percent compared to 54.8 percent in the first half.
"We knew we had a dogfight tonight," USC coach Henry Bibby said. "We wanted to hang around like that. We didn't think we could blow them out. We just wanted to stay close and we did."
The score was tied seven times in the first half and neither team led by more than four points.
Smith made a jumper for the Ducks with two seconds left for the 40-36 lead into halftime.
"Nobody really got momentum to bust out 10-point leads. That's good defense," Scales said.
