Trojans foiled in Palo Alto

Boatwright scores 19 points, but USC loses at Stanford for fifth straight time.

PALO ALTO — Bryce Wills scored four of his 11 points in the final 14 seconds and Stanford rallied to beat USC 79-76 on Wednesday night.

KZ Okpala scored 18 points to lead the Cardinal (1311, 6-6 in Pac-12), who have won four of its last five. Marcus Sheffield came off the bench and scored 16 points. Josh Sharma added 14 points and had nine rebounds.

Bernie Boatwright scored 19 points to lead the Trojans (13-12, 6-6), who lost at Stanford for a fifth straight time. Nick Rakocevic scored 15 points and had 11 rebounds.

Wills hit a layup with 14 seconds remaining to put Stanford ahead 77-76. He missed an ensuing free throw and USC called time to step up a play.

Boatwright missed a jumper and Wills grabbed the rebound.

Marcus Sheffield hit a three-pointer to bring the Cardinal within 76-75 and Sharma made a key steal at the other end.

Stanford took its first lead of the game with 12:02 remaining to play when Sharma sank a short jumper for a 52-51 advantage.

Seven lead changes and four ties later, USC took a 7472 lead on a short jumper by Derryck Duncan.

Kevin Porter Jr. scored 10 points in the early going and the Trojans took a 40-35 lead into halftime.

Etc.

Until its victory at Washington State 11 days ago, USC was on a six-game losing streak away from the Galen Center . ... USC lost for the first time when leading at the fiveminute mark . ... Sharma is averaging 11.1 points, 8.1 rebounds and over 70% shooting from the field over his last eight games for Stanford.