TROJANS SWEPT FURTHER DOWN THE PAC WITH LATEST LOSS, USC FALLS TO EIGHTH IN CONFERENCE WSU 60, USC 51.

Byline: Scott Wolf  Staff Writer

Washington State earned its first Los Angeles sweep in school history Saturday night, and USC got swept at home by the Washington schools.

A remarkable achievement for the Cougars and another example of underachievement by the Trojans.

That neatly summed up the weekend, which ended with Washington State calmly dissecting the Trojans in their 60-51 victory in front of an announced crowd of 4,788 at the Sports Arena.

With the loss, USC (9-11, 4-7) dropped into eighth place in a hardly inspiring Pacific-10 Conference, the cut-off point for qualifying for the conference tournament.

If the Pac-10 tournament started today, USC would play undefeated Stanford in the first round. At least that game might be interesting.

Just looking at USC's numbers Saturday displayed how abysmal the Trojans played: USC shot 38 percent from the field, 33 percent on 3-pointers and 40 percent on free throws.

There are teams made up of 10-year-olds that shoot better.

``We couldn't score. We couldn't make a layup or a free throw,'' USC coach Henry Bibby said. ``I thought we played with pretty good intensity. We just didn't make shots.''

Normally reliable guard Desmon Farmer, who makes 82 percent of his free throws, was 5 for 12. But he admitted after the game a sore wrist has bothered him since last week's victory over UCLA.

``It was a free-throw problem. I missed seven myself,'' Farmer said. ``I don't know what happened, to tell you the truth.

``I'm trying to adjust to my soreness in my wrist and haven't been feeling the ball the same. The free throws you have to concentrate. I'm thinking about my wrist and the shot is hard for me. I'm not using it as an excuse or anything.''

At least Farmer had a plausible explanation. No other Trojan did.

``That's a good question,'' forward Rory O'Neil said about the Trojans' free-throw problems. ``I don't know what to say.''

O'Neil also missed six of his eight field-goal attempts as the Trojans scored their fewest points at the Sports Arena since a 73-43 loss to California in 1998. USC hadn't lost to Washington State at home since 1996 and hadn't been swept since 1986.

Otherwise, it was fairly successful evening.

Actually, the Trojans got off to another impressive start before folding, in an almost identical collapse to Thursday's against Washington.

Washington State (11-10, 5-6) went scoreless for the opening seven minutes, allowing USC to build a 9-0 lead. Washington State finally scored with 12:52 left in the first half on a 3-pointer by forward Chris Schlatter.

It was perhaps predictable Washington State came out flat, considering the Cougars beat UCLA on Thursday for their first victory over the Bruins in Los Angeles in 47 games.

``I couldn't get the kids to settle down,'' Washington State coach Dick Bennett said. ``They were unsettled and rushing their shots. I knew once they were settled down we could get some shots off.''

USC's nine-point advantage evaporated, however, as Washington State scored 12 consecutive points and the Trojans went scoreless for 6 minutes, 49 seconds.

The slide continued even after Bennett received a technical foul with 8:34 left and Farmer missed both fouls shots. USC guard Rodrick Stewart then missed the front end of a one-and-one to keep the Trojans from scoring.

Forward Nick Curtis finally stopped the scoreless stretch by dunking with 8:05 left to cut the Cougars' lead to 12-11.

After USC took a 13-12 lead with 7:11 remaining, the Trojans didn't score for more than five minutes. USC scored just nine points in the final 15 minutes of the half, shot 29 percent from the field and missed all five free throws (four by Farmer).

Marcus Moore led the Cougars with 14 points. When the teams played in Spokane, Wash., last month, Bibby told Moore, who is from Compton, he should have played at USC.

--Notes: After O'Neil's 12-point effort against Washington on Thursday, Bibby inserted the team captain into the starting lineup for the first time since Jan. 10 against, coincidentally, Washington State. With O'Neil starting, Curtis returned to the bench.

Scott Wolf, [phone]

scott.wolf(at)dailynews.com