The statistical problems are glaring.
A combined eight points and 11 fouls from five post players, a season-high 26 turnovers, 33.3 percent second-half shooting, and a 45-28 rebounding deficit.
Emotionally, the problems for the No. 22 Oregon men’s basketball team weren’t quite as clear Sunday in a 91-76 loss to USC at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
“Mentally, we were completely shut down,” head coach Ernie Kent told KUGN-AM after the Ducks’ third loss in four Pacific-10 Conference road games.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Ducks (15-5 overall, 5-4 Pac-10), who are now tied with Arizona State for fourth place in the conference.
After a slow start, Luke Ridnour paced the Ducks with 21 points, though he had a team-high six turnovers. Andre Joseph added 18 points and five turnovers. Luke Jackson, playing with his cut ring finger wrapped, came off the bench to score 17.
Oregon’s big men, however, were practically invisible against USC (8-9, 4-5). Robert Johnson picked up his fourth foul with 16:10 remaining, sending him to the bench for more than 10 minutes, and Ian Crosswhite went to the bench at the 12:22 mark after his fourth foul and didn’t return until there was 4:35 left.
Johnson finished with two points, four rebounds and five turnovers in 14 minutes. Crosswhite, who had a career-high 22 points and 12 rebounds in Oregon’s 96-91 overtime win over UCLA on Thursday, didn’t score until the final 30 seconds, when the game was already out of reach.
“You can’t blame them, but they know they have to step up,” Kent said of his post players. “They had no legs, and I thought mentally they were extremely out.”
Five Trojans scored in double figures, led by Errick Craven, who had 18 points, 10 rebounds and eight steals. Rory O’Neil added 12 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks.
“USC took it to us in every area they could,” Kent said. “If they played this well every night, their record would be different. They could easily be 8-0, 9-0 right now.”
The Ducks shot 51.9 percent in the first half, but couldn’t find their touch to start the second half, going 2-for-12. The Trojans capitalized, building an 11-point lead early in the half after Desmon Farmer hit back-to-back three-pointers.
Ridnour brought the Ducks back within four, at 62-66, after he hit a three with 9:28 left. But that’s as close as Oregon would get.
“As bad as we played, it was a three-point game with like seven minutes to go — that ought to tell you something,” Kent said.
Even more revealing was Oregon’s sloppy first half. The Ducks, who average 14.8 turnovers per game, had 20 turnovers in the first 20 minutes — tying a season-high for a full game — thanks in large part to a harassing Trojan zone defense.
“SC had something to do with maybe five or six of (the turnovers), but they were just mental breakdowns on our part, poor decision, poor passes,” Kent said.
Because of mistakes of its own, USC (13 turnovers) wasn’t able to pull away in a half that featured 12 lead changes, and the Trojans led 40-34 at the break.
Joseph kept the Ducks close in the first half, scoring 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Ridnour had just four first-half points and five turnovers.
“We got the split (on the road), but I’m not happy with it,” Kent said. “The best thing to do is regroup and get ready for Stanford and Cal coming in for two big
ballgames.”