Cardinal comeback falls short
LOS ANGELES — The matchup between Stanford and USC was the Pac-12’s only men’s basketball game Wednesday night.
It provided enough action to fill an entire conference slate.
Stanford had a clean look at a closing-seconds three-pointer that would have completed a comeback from down 17 points, but the shot ricocheted off the rim, and USC hung on for a 69-64 victory in a game that lived up to its buzzy pregame billing at the Galen Center.
“It’s a great sign to be down
big on the road and to be able to come back, but obviously, we don’t want to put ourselves in that situation,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said. “I do believe there’s belief in the locker room that we can be a good team, and we’re moving in the right direction. “But this one really stings.” The Trojans (16-6, 7-2) extended their winning streak to a season-best five games and are off to their best conference start since 2002, but they had to show quite a bit of fortitude in the closing minutes to stave off the Cardinal (11-10, 5-3), who had won five of their previous six games and have jumped more than 125 RPI spots in the past three weeks.
Stanford big man Michael Humphrey blocked Nick Rakocevic’s layup attempt, and Daejon Davis raced to the other end to draw a foul. His two free throws trimmed USC’s lead to 66-64 with 31.8 seconds left, and after Jordan McLaughlin missed three of four free-throw attempts, Stanford had one last chance to tie a game it had never led.
Davis, who won the first meeting with a buzzer-beater from just past half court, couldn’t connect on a threepointer from the top of the key with eight seconds left this time, and the ball sprang out of bounds. Elijah Stewart got behind the pressing Stanford defense to throw down the game-clinching dunk just before the horn.
Stanford was led by Reid Travis, who had 16 points and nine rebounds, and Humphrey, who staggered through early foul trouble to add 14 points and six rebounds. The Cardinal did their best to exploit their size advantage with USC missing 6-foot-10 forward Bennie Boatwright because of a foot injury, but their 16 turnovers wouldn’t allow it.
USC, which has forced 131 turnovers in its past eight games of newly inspired defense, got four three-pointers and 18 points off the bench from Jonah Matthews and a little bit of everything from Chimezie Metu. The 6-11 junior had 12 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, two blocked shots and two steals and was a big part of the Trojans building a 16-point, firsthalf lead that bumped to 17 in the opening minutes of the second half.
After being turned passive by USC’s zone in the first half, Stanford showed much more aggression in the second. The Cardinal used an 11-3 run, including six free throws by Dorian Pickens (14 points on 11 field-goal attempts), to trim the deficit to 46-37 with 16½ minutes left.
Between the 16:30 and fourminute marks, the Cardinal trimmed USC’s lead to seven points four times, but they couldn’t get closer until the final two minutes. That’s when Oscar da Silva drilled a corner three-pointer that cut the Trojans’ lead to 66-62 with 1:29 remaining and set the stage for the dramatic finish of a high-level game.
“Look, that’s a very, very talented team,” Haase said of USC, which moved to 1½ games ahead of third-place Stanford in the Pac-12. “You can come up with the greatest schemes in the world, but at the end of the day, you just have to bust your tail and find ways to get it done.
“We didn’t get that done.”