Jan. 11, 1997
Knight's Season-High 27 Points Leads No. 21 Stanford Past USC, 85-70
STANFORD, Calif. -- Brevin Knight scored a season-high 27 points as number 21Stanford pulled away for an 85-70 Pac-10 Conference victory overSouthern California.
Knight set a season high for the second consecutive game for theCardinal (10-2, 3-1 Pac-10), who have won nine of their last 10games. Stanford, which was coming off a 48-point demolition ofUCLA on Thursday, played like it was suffering a letdown for thefirst 25-plus minutes.
"We anticipated this going into the week," said Stanford coachMike Montgomery. "We didn't have a real good feeling aboutplaying USC. They are athletic, hungry and they play well."
Stais Boseman scored 19 points for the Trojans (7-5, 2-2), whofell to 1-4 on the road and are 0-4 overall when giving up 80 ormore points. The Trojans lead the all-time series 107-100, buthave lost seven of the last eight games between the schools.
"Brevin Knight is the best point guard in the country," said USCcoach Henry Bibby. "It was shown the way he took control of thegame from the very beginning. We played good in the first half.We did the things we wanted to and executed some plays. In thesecond half, we were struggling to get shots."
The Trojans tied the game for the last time at 49-49 on a layupby Boseman with 15:10 to play, but Stanford went on a 17-4 runover the next 7:31.
Tim Young had a tip-in of a miss by Peter Sauer with 14:42 toplay, giving Stanford the lead for good. Young added two freethrows and David Moseley knocked down a three-pointer beforeKnight made a driving layup to give Stanford a 58-49 lead with12:40 to go.
Boseman and Jarvis Turner had baskets around an eight-footer bySauer to make it 60-53, but Young threw down a dunk, and Knightadded four free throws to cap the run and give the Cardinal a66-53 bulge with 7:39 remaining. The Trojans came no closerthan nine points down the stretch.
Stanford could not shake the Trojans in the first half andopened up a five-point lead only once. USC used a 9-2 run,fueled by five points from Turner, to open up a 34-28 lead with4:02 remaining on a six-footer by Rodrick Rhodes.
The Cardinal answered with a 9-4 burst to close the half asSouthern Cal held a 38-37 lead. Stanford, which made 15three-pointers in its rout of UCLA, was just 2-of-11 from longrange in the first half.
Young finished with 21 points and Moseley, a freshman, added aseason-high 19 off the bench, 15 on three-pointers. Stanfordshot 65 percent (15-of-23) from the field in the second half andheld a 34-25 rebounding advantage. Knight sank all 11 of hisfree throws.
"I took the opportunity that was given to me," said Moseley, whoentered the game with just 31 points in 10 games but doubled hisseason three-point total. "I had to step it up. The first partof my confidence came on the defensive end. I knew I was goingto get to play more as long as I played well on defense."
"Fortunately, we found Moseley off the bench," added Montgomery."He came in and shot the ball very well. We decided he was abetter option because of his defensive abilities. He saved ourbacon in the first half and kept it going."
Turner finished with 17 points and eight rebounds off the benchfor USC, which shot 45 percent (24-of-53) from the field. DavidCrouse, who tried to contain Young, fouled out with just sixpoints in 21 minutes.
USC (70) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tpWilliams 26 4-8 1-2 1-2 2 2 10White 29 0-4 0-0 2-3 0 4 0Crouse 21 1-3 4-6 1-2 0 5 6Ayuso 16 2-3 2-2 0-1 2 2 8Boseman 37 8-18 0-0 0-3 4 3 19Rhodes 12 1-2 3-6 0-2 2 2 5Sims 17 1-3 0-0 0-0 2 2 3Turner 30 6-8 5-6 6-8 0 0 17Johnson 11 1-4 0-0 0-0 1 1 2Shoukry 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0_______________________________________________TOTALS 200 24-53 15-22 10-21 13 21 70_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.453, FT-.682. 3-Point Goals:7-15, .467 (Williams 1-1, Ayuso 2-3, Boseman 3-6,Rhodes 0-1, Sims 1-2, Turner 0-1, Johnson 0-1).Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 5 (Turner 2,Boseman, White, Crouse). Turnovers: 17 (Rhodes 5,Boseman 3, Turner 2, Williams 2, Ayuso, Johnson,Sims, White). Steals: 8 (White 2, Williams 2,Johnson, Rhodes, Sims, Turner).STANFORD (85) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tpJackson 21 0-2 0-0 3-7 2 2 0Sauer 24 5-8 0-0 0-4 4 1 10Young 28 7-9 7-7 2-5 1 3 21Weems 21 1-6 0-0 3-4 4 2 2Knight 35 8-15 11-11 0-0 5 3 27Lee 14 1-4 4-4 0-1 0 3 6Madsen 13 0-3 0-0 2-4 0 2 0Van Elswyk 10 0-1 0-1 2-4 0 2 0Moseley 25 6-9 2-3 1-5 2 1 19Seaton 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0Mendez 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0_______________________________________________TOTALS 200 28-57 24-26 13-34 18 20 85_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.491, FT-.923. 3-Point Goals:5-17, .294 (Jackson 0-2, Sauer 0-1, Weems 0-4,Knight 0-2, Moseley 5-8). Team rebounds: 1.Blocked shots: 5 (Young 2, Knight, Moseley,Seaton). Turnovers: 17 (Knight 4, Weems 4, Lee 2,Van Elswyk 2, Jackson, Madsen, Moseley, Sauer,Young). Steals: 10 (Knight 5, Moseley 2, Lee,Sauer, Young).__________________________________Usc 38 32 - 70Stanford 37 48 - 85__________________________________Technical fouls: None. A: 7,305. Officials:Richard Ballesteros, Don Mcallister, DavidSparkes.