SoCal College Game Report
SoCal College Game Report
USC Beats San Diego State 76-72--(November 30, 1997)
Adam Spanich pulled USC's butt out of the fire last night by pouring in 27 points, including an amazing seven three-pointers as USC escaped from San Diego State's new Cox Arena with the W. Although Spanich was pretty hot, not many of the other Trojans were, and the offense never really got going for Bibby's team for much of the evening.
The Freshmen were on strike, seemingly refusing to perform. Greg Lakey, usually pretty reliable for a freshman, played 13 minutes and only scored two points; Sims played 6 minutes and didn't score. Kevin Augustine, another usually reliable guy, played for 11 minutes, and didn't score either. Jeff Trepagnier, another freshman played 13 minutes and didn't score. Shannon Swillis played 34 minutes and only had 4 points. Ayuso played 16 minutes and only hit 1 of his 4 field goals (a 3 pointer). At least Augustine had an excuse with his recent dizziness which has been caused, his doctors tell him, by a viral infection.
The game was Dismal. Pathetic. Terrible. Bibby was mad.
Thank goodness for Spanich, Williams who had 13, Johnson with 15, and Sims with 12. In fact more than 90 % of the USC scoring came from these four. Not a very balanced attack.
USC, which is now 4-1, seemed to be in control during the first half, taking a 30-18 lead after Spanich made three consecutive treys. But then the Aztecs went on a scoring spree to take a 31-30 lead. At the half, the game was tied, 38-38. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the locker room during the half to see and hear what Bibby did. He must have gone nuts. This was the third straight game that Bibby's bunch have blown a double-digit lead.
Bibby was, not just mad, he was pissed off. He told the assembled press conference after the game, "You can't live with the jump shots every night. right now, we don't have an inside game. We've got to have other people score for us. Greg Lakey had two points tonight. He has to score more than two points for us. Shannon Swillis took three shots in 34 minutes [he only scored 4]. He has to shoot more than that."
Bibby also thought that his players played incredibly selfishly in blowing what had been a double digit lead at one point: "I guess it's getting to be a trend. I thought we played selfish basketball. We played selfish the whole game. Those guys have to get better for us if we want to get better in the Pac-10."
For their part, San Diego was not much better, and only four of their players accounted for most of the scoring too, with the difference being that San Diego's high scorer Watts hit for 24, three less points than Spanich.
San Diego State is now 1-3, having lost to BYU 59-73 at the new Cox Arena, losing to Eastern Wash 52-69, beating SW Texas St 79-57, and now losing to USC at home.
This was not a pretty game at all. Bibby's right to be mad, because this won't work in the Pac-10 at all. Here are the numbers:
USC (76)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Williams 33 5-12 2-3 3-4 3 2 13
Lakey 13 1-4 0-0 0-4 1 3 2
Turner 18 5-8 2-3 2-4 0 4 12
Sims 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Johnson 29 5-9 4-6 0-5 4 3 15
Augustine 11 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 2 0
Trepagnier 13 0-1 0-2 1-3 3 3 0
Spanich 27 8-13 4-6 1-4 0 1 27
Ayuso 16 1-4 0-0 1-1 2 0 3
Swillis 34 2-3 0-1 3-8 0 3 4
Souferian 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
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TOTALS 200 27-55 12-21 11-33 16 21 76
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Percentages: FG-.491, FT-.571. 3-Point Goals:
10-21, .476 (Williams 1-3, Sims 0-1, Johnson 1-3,
Trepagnier 0-1, Spanich 7-11, Ayuso 1-2). Team
rebounds: 8. Blocked shots: 3 (Turner, Johnson,
Swillis). Turnovers: 25 (Johnson 6, Swillis 4,
Turner 4, Augustine 2, Ayuso 2, Spanich 2,
Trepagnier 2, Williams 2, Lakey). Steals: 6
(Swillis 2, Ayuso, Johnson, Turner, Williams).
SAN DIEGO ST (72)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Betts 35 3-4 2-2 2-6 2 3 8
Correa 28 4-8 2-5 3-5 2 4 10
Kruiswyk 30 3-4 2-2 3-7 0 4 8
Richey 35 2-12 3-4 1-4 4 5 8
Watts 39 10-22 0-2 1-4 3 4 24
Visnjic 22 1-9 8-8 0-1 2 1 11
Kaplansky 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Brown 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Clark 8 1-1 1-2 0-0 1 0 3
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TOTALS 200 24-60 18-25 10-27 14 21 72
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Percentages: FG-.400, FT-.720. 3-Point Goals:
6-18, .333 (Richey 1-5, Watts 4-7, Visnjic 1-6).
Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 4 (Visnjic 2,
Betts, Correa). Turnovers: 16 (Watts 5, Richey 3,
Visnjic 3, Betts 2, Clark, Correa, Kruiswyk).
Steals: 12 (Watts 5, Correa 4, Richey 2, Betts).
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Usc 38 38 - 76
San Diego St 38 34 - 72
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Technical fouls: None. A: 4,236. Officials: Larry Spaulding, Mark Reischling, Stan Reynolds.
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