Trojans shake, rattle and roll right through Bears

BERKELEY » There was no carryover for Cal five days after its stunning comeback victory at Stanford in its Pac-12 opener. Not even a whiff.

The Golden Bears looked like the team picked 11th in the conference, falling behind USC by 26 points in the first 18 minutes on the way to an 80- 62 defeat in front of 6,915 fans on Thursday night.

Seventeen hours after a 4.4- magnitude earthquake shook Berkeley less than 3 miles from Haas Pavilion, the Bears handled the basketball as if trying to play through one long aftershock.

Cal ( 7- 8, 1- 1) had 15 turnovers on its first 34 possessions while missing 18 of its first 23 shots. The Bears had first- half stretches of 5:32 and 7:20 without field goals. Garbage time began long before it was 38-12 with 2 minutes left in the half.

“Turnovers kind of set the tone for the rest of the game,” freshman Justice Sueing said.

USC ( 11- 5, 2-1) played the first half without leading scorer and rebounder Chimezie Metu, suspended for punching a Washington State player in the groin, and it didn’t matter. The Bears trailed 41-20 at halftime only after scoring eight points in the final 1:45 of the period, including sophomore Roman Davis’ first career 3-pointer, a bank shot.

“That was a tough one because I felt like we had a really good week of practice. We had some good momentum going,” firstyear Cal coach Wyking Jones said. “Once again, dug ourselves a hole. That was a veteran team that wasn’t going to give it up.”

The Bears had pulled off an improbable rally at Stanford last Saturday, scrambling back from 16 points down in the final eight minutes to win 7774. The Trojans were having none of that.

Cal, which had beaten USC in eight of their 10 previous meetings, trailed by as many as 30 in the second half. The Bears, with five freshmen in the rotation, have now lost three times at home by at least 19 points.

“It’s frustrating,” Jones said, “but our guys are not trying to do that. They’re trying to do the right thing. They’re young.”

The Bears finished the game shooting 40 percent (23 for 58) with 22 turnovers. A late flurry of baskets allowed the Bears to avoid having more turnovers than field goals in a game for the third time this season.

Sueing, one of the heroes in the Stanford win, led the Bears with 15 points, although he shot 0 for 5 in the first half. Marcus Lee, who had Cal’s only three field goals in the first 10minutes, wound up with 10 points, as did Juhwan Harris-Dyson.

Nick Rakocevic, who started in place of Metu, scored a career- high 19 points to lead the Trojans. Metu wound up with six points in 11 minutes, under his 17.8 average.