LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Fueled by emotion from playing their ranked
crosstown rival, the UCLA Bruins settled down with an effective
press that produced the kind of victory they've lacked this season.
|  | | UCLA's Dan Gadzuric goes up for a shot, but spent much of the night on the bench with foul trouble. |
Jason Kapono scored 20 points and Earl Watson added 17 as UCLA
defeated Southern California 80-75 Thursday night in a
highly charged game that knocked the Trojans (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today; No. 19 Associated Press) from a share of first
place in the Pacific-10 Conference.
"I feel right now I'm ready to go home and go to sleep,"
Kapono said. "It was a very exciting ballgame even though we let
them creep back into it late. Both teams fought hard. We're all
drained."
The Bruins (8-4) won their fourth in a row and maintained a
share of first place in the conference with No. 1 Stanford at 3-0.
It was also the 99th career victory for coach Steve Lavin, who
was taunted by USC fans shouting Rick Pitino's name. UCLA athletic
director Peter Dalis has spoken twice to Pitino in the last month,
although Dalis said the conversations didn't involve Lavin's job.
"Our kids this week did a great job of focusing on the
challenge at hand considering some of the distractions," Lavin
said. "I'm very proud of the fight and hustle our kids showed
against a top 20 team."
The Trojans (12-3, 2-1) rallied from 19 points down to close to three with 32 seconds remaining, but had their three-game
winning streak snapped and lost their eighth in a row in Pauley
Pavilion, where they last won in 1993.
"Almost is not good," said USC coach Henry Bibby, who is 1-8
against his alma mater, where he played on three national title
teams. "We had some chances. We got too far down and turned the
ball over."
Both teams had key players on the bench because of foul trouble -- Watson and Dan Gadzuric for UCLA and David Bluthenthal and Brian
Scalabrine for USC.
"Whoever would think that we four would be sitting out,"
Watson said.
USC's Sam Clancy tied his career-high with 31 points while
playing all 40 minutes. He grabbed a key rebound -- his 13th -- in
the closing seconds and passed to Bluthenthal, who had a 3-point
attempt blocked that would've tied the game.
"It's really frustrating when you fight back like we did and
then make stupid turnovers in the end," Clancy said. "We had
chances to win and we gave it away."
The Trojans controlled the boards 43-30 -- UCLA's worst deficit
of the season -- but they committed 28 turnovers against UCLA's
press in front of a rowdy crowd of 12,109, the largest in eight
home games this season. Brandon Granville had eight miscues.
"There really must be a mystique about Pauley," Clancy said.
"We never made this many mistakes before."
It was the first time in 39 years that the teams met when USC
was ranked and UCLA wasn't. On Feb. 2, 1962, the unranked Bruins
upset No. 5 USC 73-59 in the Sports Arena.
After a helter-skelter first half, in which only UCLA held a
double-digit lead once, the Bruins found some breathing room at the
start of the second half.
After Clancy scored to get the Trojans to close to five points, the Bruins
outscored USC 18-6 to take a 64-45 lead with 14 minutes remaining.
Watson had six points, including a steal and layup, even as he
picked up his fourth foul and Kapono earned two quick fouls.
A 3-pointer by Kapono provided UCLA's largest lead, 71-52, with
11:03 to play. But the Bruins' shooting touch disappeared, and the
Trojans worked their way back.
USC used a 17-3 spurt to close to five with 4:03 left.
Clancy scored 11 points, including three dunks, while Gadzuric
tossed up an airball and another miss at UCLA's end.
Despite back-to-back turnovers, the Trojans closed to 74-70 on a
free throw by Granville.
After Watson was fouled and hit two free throws, Bluthenthal hit
a 3-pointer in front of USC's bench to make it 76-73 with 32
seconds left. He then stole the ball, but Scalabrine's pass to
Granville went out of bounds.
Gadzuric scored inside for a 78-73 lead before Clancy's basket
again drew the Trojans to three points with 32 seconds left. Clancy
rebounded a miss by Scalabrine and fed Bluthenthal, who had his
shot blocked.
"This was definitely the most exciting game of the year so
far," Gadzuric said. "Both teams were very high. It was just a
lot of adrenaline, and a lot of stupidity comes out of too much
adrenaline."
The game got off to a rocky start with five fouls in the first
1:21. Centers Gadzuric and Scalabrine were hit with double
technicals for shoving before the teams lined up to shoot free
throws.
"Both teams came out a little too high," Kapono said.
That was Gadzuric's second foul and he went to the bench until
8:12 when he returned and picked up his third foul 32 seconds
later. His absence in the middle allowed USC to control the boards,
24-14, in the first half.
Watson was called for an intentional foul on Bluthenthal, who
responded by taunting Watson. That earned Bluthenthal a technical.
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
USC Clubhouse
UCLA Clubhouse
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