It’s Feast, Not Famine, for USC

MORAGA, Calif. â€”  Not to get Biblical and start talking plagues and pestilence, but USC was playing a Catholic school in St. Mary’s on Saturday night.

And those were ants in the Craven twins’ hotel room the night before that forced a move and the cockroaches that infested Desmon Farmer’s abode, well they could have been seen as a sort of sign, or bad omen.

It looked that way much of the night, though the Trojans kept the faith and the pseudo-Talisman the Trojans have in Farmer’s omnipresent headband saw them through the rainy East Bay night. USC pulled out an 84-83 overtime victory against the Gaels after trailing by five points with less than 35 seconds to play in regulation.

“It was just drive and desire,� said junior point guard Derrick Craven, who came off the bench to score 16 points on a perfect seven-for-seven shooting from the field.

“We were watching the [USC] football game on TV today and it gave us motivation. We saw that they were happy and we wanted to be happy too.�

Stunned was the better way to describe the McKeon Pavilion crowd of 3,086, which had been so boisterous in egging on the Gaels to leads of 12 points late in the first half and nine midway through the second half.

The final play of regulation was a frenetic scramble that left the Trojans (2-2), who had blown a seven-point lead to Nevada Las Vegas on Wednesday before losing in overtime, with their chests puffed out and the Gaels(4-3) crestfallen.

With USC clinging to a one-point advantage and 12 seconds left in overtime, two seconds on the shot clock, Errick Craven drove hard to the basket but could not get his layup to fall.

St. Mary’s forward Daniel Kickert grabbed the rebound and immediately found E.J. Rowland, who sped up court. Rowland, who missed eight of the 10 free throws he shot, including his first seven, drove to the lane but kicked the ball out to a an open Tyler Herr on the right wing.

Herr, a 41% three-point shooter, had a good look and let it fly from 25 feet, but his shot hit the far side of the rim and bounded into the hands of Rowland, who could not get off a shot as the horn sounded.

“It’s just nice to get a win at this stage,� said Coach Henry Bibby, who compared the Gaels to a Pacific 10 Conference team. “This was the best team we’ve played this season so far.

“We executed when we needed to.�

Probably not better than when Farmer, his headband knocked slightly off kilter by the physical nature of the game, drained a three-point basket from the right wing with 16.7 seconds remaining in regulation to cut the St. Mary’s lead to 77-75.

Farmer finished with a Trojan-high 19 points.

“That was the big play,� Coach Randy Bennett said. “That really gave them some momentum.�

And Rowland’s problems at the free-throw line didn’t hurt USC’s cause either.

Rowland missed two free throws with 15.5 seconds to play, and after Rory O’Neil grabbed the second rebound, he found Errick Craven, who drove the length of the floor to scoop in a score-tying layup with 9.0 seconds remaining, the first tie since it was 11-11.

“This was a roller coaster,� said Craven, who intimated that the Trojans learned much from their defeats. “We stuck together and the two losses [to UNLV and Western Michigan] resulted in this win. We all played together. It was amazing.�

Kickert led St. Mary’s with a game-high 24 points and USC power forward Jeff McMillan had his second double-double in as many games with 16 points and 11 rebounds in 41 minutes. He blocked two shots and had three turnovers.

“We played hard,� said Farmer, who enjoyed an ongoing war of words with the student section but had the last word. “Usually we break down in those situations but ... we pulled it out.�