USC handles Anteaters

LOS ANGELES — There’s a reason nobody ever calls it November Madness.

Unlike the well-chronicled, unscripted drama that can occur when all but the top teams are eliminated, the initial stages of the college basketball season typically hold true to form.

Such was the case Saturday, when No. 18-ranked USC withstood a first-half challenge from visiting UC Irvine to record a 78-55 season-opening nonconference triumph that was more routine than the 90-degree Southland heat.

There were obvious degrees of separation between the mid-major Anteaters and a burgeoning national powerhouse that appears better prepared than in recent memory to give its more-heralded and tradition-rich rivals across town a run deep into that madness that defines March.

But UCI rooters may be encouraged by some stretches, including about a 10-minute span in the first half, in which the best team on the floor wasn’t wearing the logo that adorned the Galen Center jump circle.

Instead, it was UCI, which lost three of its top four scorers from last year’s 18-16 unit, that allowed the modest crowd of 4,089, about 4,000 of which were rooting for the hosts, to largely save their voices for the Trojans’ football date with Stanford at the nearby Coliseum later in the afternoon.

“We had some good moments,” UCI Coach Pat Douglass said. “But there weren’t enough of them.”

After stumbling at the start — USC led, 8-0, after two minutes and was up, 10-2, with nearly five minutes elapsed — the visitors settled into some midseason offensive execution. UCI repeatedly broke down the defense with penetration, and finished effectively enough to pull within 12-11 on a Kevin Bland three-pointer with 12:05 left in the opening half.

Senior reserve Brett Lauer netted a three-pointer to help UCI pull even, 18-18, with 8:02 left and junior guard Darren Moore, a transfer from Citrus Community College, answered two USC free throws with back-to-back buckets to create a 22-20 lead with 5:20 to go before halftime.

USC’s Donte Smith answered with a three-pointer, however, and a three by Trojans guard Leonard Washington that beat the buzzer, allowed the hosts to close the half on a 15-7 run.

“We were able to get back in the game a little in the first half, but then they had a good finish to the half, which a good ballclub will do,” Douglass said. “In the second half, they came out and got it going and we kind of backed off our intensity.”

Dwight Lewis drained a three-pointer to get USC going after halftime, as the hosts scored the first seven points of the period to trigger a 13-2 run after the break.

A three-point play by the 6-foot-5 Moore, who led UCI with 16 points in his Division I debut and added five rebounds, three assists and one steal in 32 minutes, trimmed the deficit to 48-34 with 15:29 left.

But that was as close as the Anteaters got.

“They made us adjust [defensively] with their style of play,” USC Coach Tim Floyd said. “I thought they just did a great job of drawing us in for help from the offside with their penetration, then kicking the ball to the open guy. We just decided we were going to eliminate the kicks by pressuring all three perimeter players and forcing them to kick to a big guy, instead of one of the guards.”

The change paid dividends.

“They took us our of our rhythm,” Douglass said. “We had to go to our secondary offense.”

Douglass said every one of his players’ performance was secondary to Moore’s.

“I thought [Moore] competed,” Douglass said. “He showed some athleticism, some penetration, and I felt he looked very comfortable out there. That was nice to see.”

UCI junior Zack Atkinson, another JC transfer, had 10 points on five-of-seven field-goal shooting, mostly mid-range jumpers, and had a team-high seven rebounds.

Lauer was four of six from the field, three of five from threedom, to finish with 12 points in 19 minutes.

Bland finished with seven points, two rebounds and four of UCI’s 16 turnovers, before fouling out in 25 minutes.

Junior Chad DeCasas, who led UCI with 18 points in its exhibition victory over Cal Poly Pomona, missed his only field-goal try and was scoreless in 24 minutes.

“I like them,” Floyd said of UCI, which plays Eastern Washington in its home opener Wednesday at 7 p.m.. “I told our players at halftime, they were very well-coached and they were going to be patient on the road, because we were longer and a better rebounding team. I said, ‘I haven’t seen them take a bad shot yet.’ ... I thought Pat did everything that he could possibly have done to keep his guys in the game.”

Nonconference

USC 78, UC Irvine 55

UC Irvine – Bland 7, DeCasas 0, Atkinson 10, Moore 16, Rembert 6, Lauer 12, Wise 4.

3-pt. goals – Lauer 3, Moore 1, Bland 1.

Fouled out – Bland.

USC – Gibson 17, DeRozan 14, Wilkinson 2, Lewis 18, Hackett 10, Washington 9, Smith 5, Simmons 2, Diarra 1.

3-pt. goals – Lewis 3, Washington 1, Smith 1.

Halftime: USC, 35-29.