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Trojans give
49ers lots to work on
By Phil Witte
On-line Forty-Niner
Much has been made
in recent weeks of Pepperdine's conquering of UCLA and USC,
making them unofficial Los Angles city champions.
With Long Beach
State's 86-68 loss to USC Wednesday night in front of 4,614
at The Pyramid coming a week after a loss to Pepperdine, the
prospects for the 49ers breaking into that elite are not rosy.
It all came on
a night when senior guard Brandon Granville scored a career-high
25 points and became USC's all-time leading three-point shooter
with 178.
LBSU (3-5) scored
the first five points of the second half to pull within four,
but the Trojans (5-2) used a 20-4 over the next 7:18 to put
the game virtually out of reach.
"Granville
hit a three going into the half and we came out in the second
and made some mistakes," 49er Coach Wayne Morgan said.
"We turned the ball over and missed some rebounds and
that lead to a snowball effect."
The one bright
spot for the 49ers was the play of sophomore Kevin Roberts,
who notched a career-high 15 points, including 3-of-6 from
behind the arc.
"All the games
we've lost have been to good team, and we could have beaten
them," Roberts said. "We just have to keep our heads
up and stay together as a team."
The Trojans began
the game with a ferocious full-court press, which they kept
up the entire game. When the 49ers attacked and found holes,
Travis Reed, Rudy Williams and Kevin Roberts had easy lay-ups,
but those instances were rare.
Freshman guard
Errick Craven's 12 points paced the Trojans in the first half,
and the visitors led by as much as 32-25 with 4:30 to play.
Six points by Williams on a 7-2 run brought the 49ers to within
two, but a pair of baskets by Granville and two free throws
from Craven put the margin at 41-32 at the break.
Craven finished
the game 18 points and six rebounds.
"[Granville]
hasn't had a game like that in a long time," USC Coach
Henry Bibby said. "We need him to shoot when he has an
open shot. In the last couple of games, I think he's only
taken four."
The Trojans press
was just as strong in the second half as it was in the first,
and once the brief LBSU rally was killed the visitors held
the 49ers at bay for the remainder of the game.
"My shots
were there today," Granville said. "We stayed aggressive
for the whole game and that was the key to our win."
For the game, the
Trojans shot 59 percent from the floor, the fourth time a
49er opponent had shot better than 50 percent. The 49ers are
0-4 in those four games.
"We need to
be more aggressive and we need to work on all areas of our
game," Morgan said. "With Stanford this Saturday,
we have no time to cry in our soup."
Williams finished
with a team-high 16 points and a game-high eight rebounds.
Trojan center San
Clancy, who torched the 49ers with 24 points and 10 rebounds
in last year's Trojan win, finished with 16 points and six
rebounds.
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