USC finally makes itself at home against UCLA with a 68-64 win
Gritty defense carries Trojans to a not-so-pretty victory, but it's their first over the Bruins at the Galen Center, and gives them a sweep of the season series.
By Baxter Holmes
The Los Angeles Times
February 15, 2010
The UCLA-USC game used to be a high-class buffet for the NBA.
Four players who participated in it last season were drafted in the first round, and three more the year before that, including Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo.
This year, with the league having pecked both rosters clean, the game was more greasy spoon than gourmet feast Sunday night, making the Trojans' 68-64 win -- their first ever over UCLA at the Galen Center -- a faint vision of what used to be.
"We don't have those type of huge recruits," UCLA senior guard Michael Roll said recently. "But I think this game still matters a whole lot to the two schools."
This season, with both teams battling in a gridlocked Pacific 10 Conference race, it held considerable meaning.
USC (15-9 overall, 7-5 in the Pac-10) earned a season sweep of the Bruins for the first time since the 2003-04 season as well as a firm grip on third place in the conference standings.
"Any time you can beat UCLA, it's a special moment," said USC guard Dwight Lewis, who had a game-high 23 points. "Especially beat them twice in one year and get them the first time at Galen, it's a special moment."
Said Roll, who led UCLA with 21: "It's frustrating. Maybe in a week, I'll feel it more. Right now, it just has to sit there."
The significance of the Trojans' first home victory against UCLA since their new arena opened in 2006-07 was not lost on first-year USC Coach Kevin O'Neill, whose career record against the Bruins is now 2-0.
"From the time I sat in an interview with [Athletic Director] Mike Garrett, I knew how important it was," O'Neill said.
The loss makes an outright conference title unlikely for the Bruins (11-13, 6-6). Since Arizona and Arizona State joined the conference for the 1978-79 season, no Pac-10 team has won the regular-season title with six losses.
Sunday's showing drew 8,836, a far cry from the sold-out 10,258 that saw the previous two rivalry games here, but the game was much different than the 21-point USC win last month in Westwood.
UCLA dominated the rebounding, 46-25, for instance. "Normally, you don't lose too many games when you out-board an opponent by 20," UCLA Coach Ben Howland said.
But the Bruins' 24-for-61 shooting from the field (40.6%) and 20 turnovers hurt them more, and highlighted how these talent-deprived teams have produced some truly ugly basketball this season.
Bad passes sailed off target. Players dribbled off their feet into turnovers. Point-blank layups weren't converted.
And a few dunks went awry, such as USC's Marcus Johnson missing a thunderous attempt midway through the second half that careened off the rim and out of bounds.
Between the spotty play, highlights were few.
Example: After USC's Nikola Vucevic made a turnaround layup to give his team a 56-47 lead with 6 minutes 16 seconds left, the Trojans committed four straight turnovers and UCLA cut that lead to 56-52.
Johnson made a midcourt steal and scored on a two-handed slam with 2:17 left, a basket that seemed to seal the win . . . except more sloppy play followed before time ran out on the Bruins.
"If you're going down the stretch and you had a list of things you didn't want to do, we did them all," O'Neill said.
Yet his team won, and earned its biggest victory to date: a sweep of the cross-town rival.
"It hurts," UCLA forward Nikola Dragovic said. "They haven't swept us since I've been here. It really hurts."
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UCLA-USC basketball: Trojans scratch out victory for sweep of Bruins
By Chris Foster
The Los Angeles Times
February 14, 2010 | 9:22 pm
USC managed to make fewer mistakes in an ugly game to come away with a 68-64 victory over UCLA, giving the Trojans a sweep of the Bruins in Pacific 10 Conference play.
It was the Trojans third consecutive victory over the Bruins, USC's first at the Galen Center, and their first sweep of UCLA since the 2003-04 season. USC has swept UCLA only five times since the 1942-43 season.
Dwight Lewis scored 23 points and Donte Smith added a career-high 12 points for USC. Smith sparked an 18-9 run with five consecutive points to break a 38-38 tie.
UCLA got as close as 56-52 with four minutes left. USC committed five turnovers during a seven-possession stretch, but UCLA was able to score only two points in that time.
The Trojans made eight of 10 free throws in the last two minutes to clinch the victory.
USC shot 46% from the field and UCLA shot 39%. The Bruins turned the ball over 20 times compared to USC's 15
The Trojans led by as many as eight points in the first half, and took a 32-29 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Lewis made four of his first five shots to help the Trojans build a 21-13 lead midway through the first half. But the Bruins, who were routed by USC at Pauley Pavilion, managed to control the inside to keep the game close.
The Bruins, who were out-rebounded, 37-22, by the Trojans last month, had a 25-11 edge in the first half and 46-25 for the game. It allowed UCLA second shots and prevented USC from cleaning up on the offensive boards, as the Trojans did in their first meeting this season.
Nikola Dragovic’s layup capped a 9-2 run to give UCLA a 29-28 lead with 3:55 left in the first half. But the Bruins turned the ball over on three of their last four possessions.
Neither team shot well in the first half. USC made 13 of 30 shots, while UCLA made 13of 32.
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UCLA guard Malcolm Lee is smothered by the defense of USC's Leonard Washington, left, and Marcus Johnson in the second half Sunday. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times / February 14, 2010)UCLA's Malcolm Lee takes blame for loss to USC
The point guard has six of the Bruins' 20 turnovers and says they were just 'bad decisions' on his part.
By Chris Foster and Baxter Holmes
The Los Angeles Times
February 15, 2010
UCLA point guard Malcolm Lee will take the blame.
This was a recurring theme. The Bruins are the gift that keeps on giving. Opposing teams are grateful for the assist.
UCLA had 20 turnovers in a 68-64 loss to USC on Sunday.
"I'll put the turnovers on me," Lee said. "They were just bad decisions. I have to read the defense better.
"Bad plays feed off bad play."
Lee, who is getting on-the-job training at point guard, had six turnovers. But it wasn't just the quantity, it was the quality.
Before halftime, the Bruins had a lead. Jerime Anderson, Lee's backup, and the little-used Mike Moser had turnovers and USC took a 32-29 lead into the locker room.
Twice late in the game, the Bruins had a chance to cut a 56-52 lead to two points.
Both times, they handed the ball back to the Trojans, with turnovers by Anderson and Brendan Lane giving the Trojans a chance to exhale.
"We have to be able to take care of the ball better," UCLA Coach Ben Howland said.
This was the sixth time in Pacific 10 Conference play that the Bruins have had at least 15 turnovers. They have lost five of those games.
Lee has had five or more turnovers four times in conference play, all losses.
Lee, though, was not looking at his inexperience as an excuse.
"This is a man's game, no one is going to baby-sit you, no one is going to hold your hand," Lee said.
Keefe out
UCLA forward James Keefe sat out Sunday after he re-injured his shoulder in practice Friday.
Keefe missed three games after he dislocated his left shoulder earlier this season.
"I don't think it is anything different from the last time," Keefe said. "It feels the same."
Howland said the MRI exam taken Sunday morning revealed no new damage, but added that Keefe was "doubtful" for this week's games at Washington State and Washington.
With Keefe out, Lane, a freshman, got his first start. He had played only five total minutes in the last six games.
Lane finished with two points and two rebounds against the Trojans.
Washington speaks ... sort of
Even with his improved play of late earning praise from his coach, USC forward Leonard Washington has continued his perplexing season-long silence toward the media.
More perplexing, Washington was mostly silent with USC's media relations staff as the featured player in the Trojans' game program Sunday.
His "quotes" were really sound bites, such as "antsy", "very hard" and "learned a lot."
Earlier this week, USC Coach Kevin O'Neill tried to explain Washington's muted approach, since Washington wouldn't himself.
"That's kind of Leonard," O'Neill said, smiling.
Boyd makes appearance
Former USC coach Bob Boyd introduced a former Trojans player at halftime for the first time this season after being hospitalized earlier this season because of blood clots in his lungs that affected his heart.
Boyd, 79, coached the Trojans in the late '60s and throughout the '70s.
He has made appearances the last two seasons at USC home games to introduce former Trojans players at halftime, and seemed in good spirits Sunday as he introduced Danny Rogers, the team's most valuable player in 1957.
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USC winning on love for the game
By Ramona Shelburne
ESPNLosAngeles.com
Updated: February 15, 2010, 2:48 AM ET
They teach it to you pretty early in your journalism career. Somewhere, up high in the game story, there should be a sentence or two putting the win or loss into context.
How many games out of first place are they now? How many games left are there? What is the team playing for? That kind of thing.
It's usually an easy thing to do. Just check the conference stats, add a win or loss and artfully (hopefully) sneak the sentence in there.
But the USC men's basketball team is reminding us of a lesson we all slowly forget the higher up the sporting world's food chain we get.
Yes, they have a stated goal of winning the regular season Pacific-10 championship because that's the highest goal they can achieve after the university self-imposed sanctions on the program in early January, barring it from the postseason.
Yes, that goal is still in reach after the Trojans completed their first season-sweep of UCLA since 2004 with a 68-64 win Sunday at the Galen Center. Officially, USC (15-9, 7-5) is just two games back of conference leader California (17-8, 9-4) with six games left to play.
But that isn't the kind of goal that can sustain a team's soul for an entire season. That makes players push through a long week of practice or find the energy for one more round of wind sprints.
That kind of fire has to be generated from love.
Love of the game. Love of your teammates. Love of competing.
USC clearly has that.
``We like playing with each other,'' junior forward Alex Stepheson said. ``We're doing it not just for the Pac-10 title but for each other as well.
``The winning is huge, the Pac-10 title is huge too, but we just want to be out there playing. We don't have a postseason so every minute really means something to us.''
It's pretty simple really, but so easy to lose sight of when so much about college basketball is about the payoff in March, when the country goes mad for the NCAA tournament and millions of dollars are generated through television rights.
You forget that every one of the players who took the court Sunday night started off playing at the park, with nothing at stake, because they just had a thing for playing basketball.
After the game, us media types were asking all the USC players what it means for the program to sweep UCLA, what it's like to finally beat the Bruins at Galen Center (where UCLA had been 3-0), and how badly they want to win the Pac-10 regular season title.
Dwight Lewis, a senior having by far the best season of his career at USC, shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
``I don't know what it means for the program (to sweep UCLA) but I know what it means for us,'' he said ``It's a good feeling. We're all happy right now. We'll celebrate this win tonight and probably tomorrow night as well, then get to work on Tuesday for the good games coming up this weekend.''
Are there still regrets that the season is over after six more games? Of course.
Would they feel better about things if they won the regular season title? Maybe a little.
But for once, a cliché is actually the best way of explaining things:
``It is what it is,'' Lewis said. ``Of course we wish we could see what we could do in the postseason, but we don't have it. So it is what it is. We can't go back and change it, all we can do now is try and win as many as we can and see what happens at the end.''
The end, as they all know, is six games away on March 6 in Tucson, Arizona.
There will be a buzzer, then handshakes, and a postgame talk in the locker room.
The flight home will likely be a little weird. Or not. Depending on how deeply anyone wants to think about it.
But at the end of it all, is a simple reminder.
``You just have to love playing basketball,'' Lewis said. ``It takes a lot of hard work to get to this level, especially to a big Pac-10 school. It'd be hard to get here without loving to play the game.''
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