USC
San Diego
No. 20 USC Beats San Diego 78-67
November 21, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 21, 2000
No. 20 USC 78, San Diego 67
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Sam Clancy scored 22 points to lead No. 20 Southern California to a 78-67 comeback victory over San Diego on Tuesday night.
The Trojans (2-0) struggled in the first half, and were down 32-28 at halftime. USC took its first lead of the game at 40-39 on Clancy's 3-pointer with 14:50 remaining.
David Bluthenthal, who set a Pacific-10 Conference record for consecutive free throws, scored eight of his 10 points during a 14-0 run that put USC up for good at 56-47 with just under eight minutes remaining.
Brandon Granville added 18 points for the Trojans.
Andre Laws scored 16 and Tom Lippold added 14 points for San Diego (1-1), which pulled to 63-59 with 4:06 to play but could get no closer.
The Toreros opened the game on a 10-0 run, prompting USC coach Henry Bibby to substitute all five players.
The starters returned to the floor less than a minute later but did little to slow San Diego, which shot 50 percent in the first half. The Trojans made only eight of 28 field goal attempts in the half.
Clancy's 17-foot jumper cut San Diego's lead to 20-13 with 7:49 left in the first half.
Robert Hutchinson made a 3-pointer and a 7-0 run that pulled USC within three points with 2:59 to play in the half.
Jarvis Turner made a 3-pointer to tie the game, but Lippold scored four of the next six points as San Diego took the lead at halftime despite 13 first-half turnovers.
In the second half, Southern California shot 62 percent and went 5-of-7 on 3-pointers.
Bluthenthal made his first four free throws to stretch his conference-record total to 41 straight. The old mark of 40 was shared by Oregon's John Grieg (1981-82) and Stanford's Todd Lichti (1989). Bluthenthal's streak ended at 41 when he missed his next attempt.
It was the first ever meeting between the two schools.
