Feb. 06, 1997
USC's Win Over Stanford, 84-81, Creates Logjam at Top of Pac-10
LOS ANGELES -- Stais Boseman scored 23 points to lead a balanced attack asSouthern California held off 18th-ranked Stanford, 84-81, in aPac-10 battle, creating a four-way tie atop the conference.
Rodrick Rhodes added 20 points and Jaha Wilson 11 for theTrojans (12-7, 7-3), who won a second-half conference game forthe first time since edging Oregon State on March 12th, 1994,snapping an 18-game losing streak.
"We just want to be a complete team that plays hard, that has discipline and is a smart team," said Rhodes. "We want some respect. We've got to understand, we're this close, we're right there. What I try to do is be the leader."
Boseman made the first of two free throws with 5.4 seconds left,leaving the door open for the Cardinal to tie. After Stanford(13-5, 6-4) called timeout, Kris Weems inbounded the ball toBrevin Knight, who missed badly on a three-pointer from the leftcorner at the buzzer.
"I wasn't frustrated, we just weren't in sync," said Knight, who finished with 16 points and seven assists. "We weren't all on the same page. I couldn't tell you why, but it just wasn't there."
The victory moved the Trojans into a tie with California,Arizona and UCLA for first place. The Bears, who play at USCSaturday, defeated UCLA tonight. The Bruins host StanfordSaturday.
Arthur Lee scored a career-high 26 points and Tim Young added 18for the Cardinal, who fell to 2-4 on the road in conference thisgame.
"It was a disappointing, discouraging, we were just so bad tostart the game," said Stanford coach Mike Montgomery. "We absolutely weren't ready to play. They made a lot of key plays down the stretch and we didn't make very many."
USC opened its largest lead, 48-36, after a layup by DavidCrouse 47 seconds into the second half. But Young keyed a 13-4run with six points and Stanford closed within 52-49 on a layupby Mark Madsen with 15:02 left.
The Trojans held a 60-57 lead with 11:27 to play after a layupby Jaha Wilson, but Stanford responded with a 12-6 burst, goingahead, 69-66, after a layup by Knight with 5:51 to go.
Wilson and Rhodes had layups to push the Trojans back up, 70-69.The game continued to swing back and forth and a jumper byJarvis Turner lifted USC into a 75-75 tie with 2:58 left, thelast deadlock of the game.
Young's tip-in 18 seconds later gave Stanford its last lead, butBoseman knocked down a three-pointer from the right corner andRhodes added two free throws with 1:27 left to make it 80-77.
Lee answered with two free throws 18 seconds later to pull theCardinal within one. But Boseman and Gary Johnson each made afree throw to make it 82-79 with 19.3 seconds left. Youngtipped in a miss by Knight with 9.4 seconds to play beforeBoseman made the second of two free throws.
After a timeout, Weems sent a long inbounds pass to Young, whotook a dribble inside the three-point arc, but stumbled and lostcontrol of the ball. Boseman made another free throw tocomplete the scoring.
USC used a 14-4 run to take a 24-10 lead midway through thefirst half after a layup by Rhodes. The Trojans maintained atleast a nine-point lead the rest of the half after shooting15-of-27 from the field.
"As long as we do a few things, we're OK," said Trojans coach Henry Bibby. "We're not looking around and seeing where we are. We were able to maintain the lead and then go basket to basket with them and win the game."
STANFORD (81) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tpJackson 5 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 1 0Sauer 25 3-7 2-2 2-2 0 4 8Young 30 6-14 6-9 5-13 2 3 18Knight 35 4-14 7-8 1-3 7 4 16Weems 25 1-6 0-1 1-3 2 3 2Moseley 15 2-6 0-3 3-4 0 2 4Lee 32 8-15 8-9 0-4 2 5 26Madsen 20 2-5 0-0 4-6 0 4 4Van Elswyk 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0Mendez 6 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 3Tshionyi 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0_______________________________________________TOTALS 200 27-71 23-32 16-37 13 27 81_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.380, FT-.719. 3-Point Goals:4-18, .222 (Sauer 0-1, Knight 1-7, Weems 0-1,Moseley 0-3, Lee 2-4, Mendez 1-1, Tshionyi 0-1).Team rebounds: 7. Blocked shots: 2 (Young 2).Turnovers: 17 (Knight 5, Jackson 3, Lee 2, Mendez2, Young 2, Madsen, Moseley, Weems). Steals: 11(Knight 4, Lee 2, Moseley 2, Sauer 2, Jackson).USC (84) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tpBoseman 35 7-12 6-10 2-4 4 3 23Williams 21 0-2 5-6 1-3 1 1 5Crouse 23 3-5 4-4 2-8 1 5 10Rhodes 32 8-13 3-8 2-6 3 2 20Ayuso 26 1-6 0-0 0-3 2 3 3Johnson 23 2-7 1-2 1-6 3 4 5Wilson 21 4-6 3-6 2-5 2 2 11Turner 16 2-3 3-4 2-4 0 4 7White 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0Sims 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0_______________________________________________TOTALS 200 27-55 25-40 12-39 16 24 84_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.491, FT-.625. 3-Point Goals:5-18, .278 (Boseman 3-8, Rhodes 1-4, Ayuso 1-5,Sims 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 8(Wilson 2, Turner 2, Crouse, Rhodes, Williams,Boseman). Turnovers: 21 (Boseman 6, Rhodes 3,Turner 3, Williams 3, Ayuso 2, Johnson 2, Crouse,Wilson). Steals: 12 (Boseman 4, Rhodes 3, Ayuso2, Williams 2, Wilson).__________________________________Stanford 36 45 - 81USC 43 41 - 84__________________________________Technical fouls: USC 1 (). A: 4,114. Officials:Scott Garibaldi, Scott Thornley, Tommy Nunez.