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Thursday, Jan. 25 10:30pm ET
Trojans hold off Ducks' last-minutes rally RECAP | BOX SCORE
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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Southern California Trojans (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 25 AP) played
35 minutes of solid basketball, then held on nervously.
Up by 16 with 5:08 remaining, the Trojans were outscored 18-5
over the next 3:37 before finally putting Oregon away 78-74
Thursday night.
Sam Clancy had 21 points and five blocks and Brian Scalabrine
added 20 points for USC (14-4, 4-2 Pacific-10).
Despite their furious finish, the Ducks (11-5, 2-4) got no
closer than three points in the waning moments.
Frederick Jones had 21 points in the loss, and Bryan Bracey had
20.
"I thought we lost our defensive intensity down the stretch,"
Trojans coach Henry Bibby said. "We gave up too much penetration
to the basket and didn't sustain the energy level we had. We broke
down defensively and gave them easy baskets.
"We can't give up a lead like that. We can't give up 49 points
in the second half."
Clancy agreed, saying, "We just started breaking down
defensively and they just kept penetrating. The important thing is,
we got a win, and that's what we were here to do."
Bibby was pleased with some aspects of the Trojans' game.
"Sam Clancy dominated," the USC coach said. "He did
everything during that stretch (building a 16-point lead) to get us
up there. Brian Scalabrine had a nice game but got in foul trouble.
"Jeff Trepagnier is getting back in the swing of things. He
played well."
Trepagnier had 12 points while playing 34 minutes.
The Trojans were up 68-52 with 5:08 remaining before the Ducks
narrowed the gap to 73-70 on Jones' layup and free throw with 1:31
left.
But Clancy hit a jumper to build the lead back to 75-70 with one
minute remaining, and the Ducks got no closer than three the rest
of the way.
"I don't want to call this a moral victory," Oregon coach
Ernie Kent said. "To play this tough against a Top 25 team in
their home, I hope our guys understand what it was about. We put
ourselves in position to win it, but we didn't get it done."
Scalabrine had nine rebounds as the Trojans dominated the boards
36-18.
The Trojans also held the Ducks 10 points below their average of
84.3 a game, which had ranked them No. 16 nationally in offense.
USC opened a 13-point lead during the first half, was up 35-25
at halftime and seemed in control until Oregon's late rally.
USC snapped a three-game losing streak to Oregon that included
two defeats by a total of four points last season. The Trojans
hadn't beaten the Ducks since a 63-59 win at the Los Angeles Sports
Arena in 1998.
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