USC's Win Over Stanford, 84-81, Creates Logjam at Top of Pac-10

LOS ANGELES -- Stais Boseman scored 23 points to lead a balanced attack as Southern California held off 18th-ranked Stanford, 84-81, in a Pac-10 battle, creating a four-way tie atop the conference.

Rodrick Rhodes added 20 points and Jaha Wilson 11 for the Trojans (12-7, 7-3), who won a second-half conference game for the first time since edging Oregon State on March 12th, 1994, snapping an 18-game losing streak.

"We just want to be a complete team that plays hard, that has discipline and is a smart team," said Rhodes. "We want some respect. We've got to understand, we're this close, we're right there. What I try to do is be the leader."

Boseman made the first of two free throws with 5.4 seconds left, leaving the door open for the Cardinal to tie. After Stanford (13-5, 6-4) called timeout, Kris Weems inbounded the ball to Brevin Knight, who missed badly on a three-pointer from the left corner at the buzzer.

"I wasn't frustrated, we just weren't in sync," said Knight, who finished with 16 points and seven assists. "We weren't all on the same page. I couldn't tell you why, but it just wasn't there."

The victory moved the Trojans into a tie with California, Arizona and UCLA for first place. The Bears, who play at USC Saturday, defeated UCLA tonight. The Bruins host Stanford Saturday.

Arthur Lee scored a career-high 26 points and Tim Young added 18 for the Cardinal, who fell to 2-4 on the road in conference this game.

"It was a disappointing, discouraging, we were just so bad to start the game," said Stanford coach Mike Montgomery. "We absolutely weren't ready to play. They made a lot of key plays down the stretch and we didn't make very many."

USC opened its largest lead, 48-36, after a layup by David Crouse 47 seconds into the second half. But Young keyed a 13-4 run with six points and Stanford closed within 52-49 on a layup by Mark Madsen with 15:02 left.

The Trojans held a 60-57 lead with 11:27 to play after a layup by Jaha Wilson, but Stanford responded with a 12-6 burst, going ahead, 69-66, after a layup by Knight with 5:51 to go.

Wilson and Rhodes had layups to push the Trojans back up, 70-69. The game continued to swing back and forth and a jumper by Jarvis Turner lifted USC into a 75-75 tie with 2:58 left, the last deadlock of the game.

Young's tip-in 18 seconds later gave Stanford its last lead, but Boseman knocked down a three-pointer from the right corner and Rhodes added two free throws with 1:27 left to make it 80-77.

Lee answered with two free throws 18 seconds later to pull the Cardinal within one. But Boseman and Gary Johnson each made a free throw to make it 82-79 with 19.3 seconds left. Young tipped in a miss by Knight with 9.4 seconds to play before Boseman made the second of two free throws.

After a timeout, Weems sent a long inbounds pass to Young, who took a dribble inside the three-point arc, but stumbled and lost control of the ball. Boseman made another free throw to complete the scoring.

USC used a 14-4 run to take a 24-10 lead midway through the first half after a layup by Rhodes. The Trojans maintained at least a nine-point lead the rest of the half after shooting 15-of-27 from the field.

"As long as we do a few things, we're OK," said Trojans coach Henry Bibby. "We're not looking around and seeing where we are. We were able to maintain the lead and then go basket to basket with them and win the game."

STANFORD (81)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Jackson          5   0-0   0-0   0-2  0  1    0
Sauer           25   3-7   2-2   2-2  0  4    8
Young           30  6-14   6-9  5-13  2  3   18
Knight          35  4-14   7-8   1-3  7  4   16
Weems           25   1-6   0-1   1-3  2  3    2
Moseley         15   2-6   0-3   3-4  0  2    4
Lee             32  8-15   8-9   0-4  2  5   26
Madsen          20   2-5   0-0   4-6  0  4    4
Van Elswyk       5   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  1    0
Mendez           6   1-2   0-0   0-0  0  0    3
Tshionyi         2   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 27-71 23-32 16-37 13 27   81
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.380, FT-.719. 3-Point Goals:
4-18, .222 (Sauer 0-1, Knight 1-7, Weems 0-1,
Moseley 0-3, Lee 2-4, Mendez 1-1, Tshionyi 0-1).
Team rebounds: 7. Blocked shots: 2 (Young 2).
Turnovers: 17 (Knight 5, Jackson 3, Lee 2, Mendez
2, Young 2, Madsen, Moseley, Weems). Steals: 11
(Knight 4, Lee 2, Moseley 2, Sauer 2, Jackson).
USC (84)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Boseman         35  7-12  6-10   2-4  4  3   23
Williams        21   0-2   5-6   1-3  1  1    5
Crouse          23   3-5   4-4   2-8  1  5   10
Rhodes          32  8-13   3-8   2-6  3  2   20
Ayuso           26   1-6   0-0   0-3  2  3    3
Johnson         23   2-7   1-2   1-6  3  4    5
Wilson          21   4-6   3-6   2-5  2  2   11
Turner          16   2-3   3-4   2-4  0  4    7
White            1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Sims             2   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 27-55 25-40 12-39 16 24   84
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.491, FT-.625. 3-Point Goals:
5-18, .278 (Boseman 3-8, Rhodes 1-4, Ayuso 1-5,
Sims 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 8
(Wilson 2, Turner 2, Crouse, Rhodes, Williams,
Boseman). Turnovers: 21 (Boseman 6, Rhodes 3,
Turner 3, Williams 3, Ayuso 2, Johnson 2, Crouse,
Wilson). Steals: 12 (Boseman 4, Rhodes 3, Ayuso
2, Williams 2, Wilson).
__________________________________
Stanford           36   45  -   81
USC                43   41  -   84
__________________________________
Technical fouls: USC 1 ().  A: 4,114. Officials:
Scott Garibaldi, Scott Thornley, Tommy Nunez.

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