USC
UCLA
UCLA Defeats Trojans, 85-76
February 08, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2001
By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES - UCLA has got its groove back.
The Bruins beat No. 22 USC 85-76 on Thursday night, snapping the Trojans' 10-game undefeated streak at home.
UCLA (14-6) remained tied for second in the Pac-10 with No. 11 Arizona at 8-2 and beat a Top 25 team for the second time in five days. The Bruins stunned then-No. 1 Stanford 79-73 on the road Saturday.
"We're playing pretty good basketball," said Jason Kapono, who led the Bruins with 20 points. "This team has come a long way from that 4-4 start."
The Trojans (16-6, 6-4) got swept in the crosstown season series after losing 80-75 last month. They committed 19 turnovers, the same mistakes that haunted them at Pauley Pavilion, where USC had 28 turnovers.
"They came into our place and kicked our butts," said USC center Brian Scalabrine, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
USC tied it once and got within one twice, but never took the lead in the second half.
"That's the whole mystique about UCLA - you know you can beat people," said USC coach Henry Bibby, who starred on three national championship teams at UCLA and fell to 1-10 against his alma mater.
"They were much better than us. They outhustled us. They made baskets and plays," he said.
Down 71-66, USC was assessed a technical foul when a fan threw a plastic bottle on the court. It occurred after the Pac-10 record crowd of 16,409 had been warned three times about tossing items on the Sports Arena floor.
"It shouldn't come to that, but it did," Bibby said. "You get technicals like that and it hurts you. It's all to UCLA's advantage."
Kapono hit the technical free throw and then Ray Young made a pair after being fouled by Sam Clancy on the play to keep the Bruins ahead 71-64.
Young had 15 of his 19 points - making 11-of-12 free throws - in the final 4:34, when the Trojans never got closer than four points. Dan Gadzuric added 12 points and 11 rebounds.
"We basically stayed composed and ran our butts off," Young said. "We controlled the tempo. We didn't get into the trash talking or the little elbows, little things like that."
Clancy led USC with 17 points before fouling out. Brandon Granville had 15 points.
"They came in and outplayed us," USC guard Jeff Trepagnier said. "They wanted the game more than we did. When we got close, we couldn't capitalize on our opportunities."
The Trojans trailed by five at halftime and were down 50-43 after Kapono hit a 3-pointer. Moments earlier, Earl Watson earned his third and fourth fouls and briefly sat.
Scalabrine, David Bluthenthal and Clancy combined to score USC's first 18 points of the second half. Bluthenthal and Clancy dominated an 11-4 spurt that Trepagnier capped with a dunk off a steal by Granville to tie it at 54 with 11:25 remaining.
Playing with his fourth foul, Watson scored and Gadzuric had a slam dunk to put the Bruins ahead 58-54.
Jarvis Turner scored five straight points to draw the Trojans within one with 6:26 remaining. But they committed three straight turnovers, Kapono hit a 3-pointer and Young scored seven of UCLA's next nine points for a 71-64 lead. That's when the rowdy crowd cost the Trojans a technical.
"It was just the pressure was so tremendous that we put on them, they just made bad decisions," Watson said.
