Cardinal comeback magic doesn’t work against Trojans
LOS ANGELES >> Despite Stanford’s recent trend of putting itself in position to win by rallying from significant deficits, a 16-point margin proved too large to surmount Wednesday night.
The Cardinal drew within two points with 31.8 seconds to play before losing to USC 69-64, in Pac-12 Conference play in front of 4,116 at the Galen Center.
The loss dropped Stanford (1110, 5-3) 1½ games behind firstplace Arizona, which will play host to Colorado on Thursday.
USC (16-6, 7-2) moved into a tie for first with the Wildcats.
The Trojans used a 12-0 blitz to build a 28-12 advantage with 8:05 left in the first half. The hosts’ zone pressure forced Stanford to commit eight turnovers and to miss 18 of 28 shots in the first half. The Trojans offense responded by converting those turnovers into 10 points and by outscoring the Cardinal 32-14 in the lane.
“In the first half, we weren’t in the flow of the game,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said. “It was kind of like, ‘Hey, let’s go out there, see how it goes and figure things out.’ It can’t be that way. We have to try to execute with reckless abandon.”
That tentative approach sabotaged Stanford’s offense.
“In the first half, we were a little timid moving the ball around,” said Reid Travis, who led the Cardinal with 16 points and nine rebounds. “We were taking 10 seconds just to get into our offense. Then we had to rush to get the shot in the end.”
But in the second half, Stanford made just six turnovers and shot
54.5 percent from the field by emphasizing its inside game. Michael Humphrey scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half.
As a result, the Cardinal narrowed its deficit to 66-64 when Daejon Davis made two free throws with 31.8 seconds to play. Then after USC’s Jordan McLaughlin made the first free throw in the bonus situation with 26.6 seconds left, Stanford had a chance to draw within one point.
Davis dribbled down the right baseline and passed to Travis, who stood near the 3-point arc. But McLaughlin stole the ball with 14 seconds to go. However, Stanford had another chance when McLaughlin missed both free throws one second later after being fouled.
Davis attempted a 3-point shot with four seconds left, giving the Trojans a flashback to their 77-76 loss at Stanford on Jan. 7 on Davis’ shot from beyond half-court at Stanford on Jan. 7 but the ball hit the rim.
“My heart stopped a little bit,” USC’s Nick Rakocevic said.
Teammate Jonah Mathews added, “I turned around because I didn’t want to look.”
But this shot hit the rim. As players fought for the ball, a Cardinal batted it out of bounds so USC received possession with 3.1 seconds remaining.
The Trojans’ Rakocevic inbounded the ball to Jordan Usher, who sent a long pass to Elijah Stewart that Davis tried to steal while it was in the air. But Stewart caught the ball and dunked it as time expired to ensure the win.
“We bury ourselves when we go four, eight, even 12 minutes when we’re not playing our brand of basketball,” Travis said. “We didn’t come out with the
right mindset in the first 10 minutes of the game, and that really hurt us down the stretch.”
Dorian Pickens added 14 points for the Cardinal while Oscar Da Silva came off the bench to score 11 points and grab eight rebounds. USC’s Mathews led all scorers with 18 points and Chimezie Metu had 12 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
The Trojans have won five in a row and 10 of 12.
“Our defensive perspective has changed a lot over the last few weeks,” Rakocevic said. “We emphasizing defense a lot more and we’re doing a good job of executing.”
Stanford visits UCLA on Saturday. The Cardinal needed a buzzer-beater in double overtime to earn a 107-99 victory three weeks ago.