WITHOUT PRUITT, TROJANS STRUGGLE IN LOSS TO WASHINGTON USC'S OFFENSE STALLS WITHOUT INJURED GUARD WASHINGTON 87, USC 73.

Byline: Scott Wolf Staff Writer

SEATTLE - So when does USC open its new on-campus arena again? That might be the preferred topic of conversation today for the Trojans after they got their first glimpse of life without guard Gabe Pruitt.

There certainly wasn't anything on the court for the first 30 minutes to highlight at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Thursday night, as USC looked miserable without arguably its best player, losing to No. 21-ranked Washington 87-73 in front of 10,000.

Pruitt fractured his knee at the end of Monday's practice and will probably miss the rest of the season. But based on initial results, there might not be much season to return for if Pruitt made a quick recovery.

``The bottom line is we got pounded on the boards, that's the fourth consecutive game where we got outrebounded by 14 or more,'' USC coach Tim Floyd said. ``It would have been tough with Gabe Pruitt. Our big guys have not pounded the glass. We don't play through the post, offensive rebound or defensive rebound. We have to rectify that at some point.''

USC (15-8, 6-6) appeared disjointed, missed its first nine shots and did not score a field for nearly 10 minutes to start the game. And that was the good news, since the Trojans trailed by only single digits even with that cold start.

But it got a lot worse because the Trojans never gave forward Nick Young any reliable support in lieu of Pruitt, who averaged 17 points per game, until it was too late. As an example, USC missed 11 of its first 12 shots from 3-point range and trailed 64-37 with 10:17 left.

At that point, USC made seven of its next eight 3-pointers and went on a 33-15 run to close the gap to 79-70 with 2:58 left. But it was

too little too late as Washington guard Brandon Roy made a 3-pointer to put the Huskies back up by double digits (82-70).

``From the start, my mom and family and everyone's been asking me, `Where are we getting 20 points from without Gabe?' '' Young said. ``There's a lot of extra pressure. I tried to put the team on my back.

``It's really frustrating. I kept seeing us down by 20 or 23 points. It would have been a lot worse if we lost by that much, but we came back at the end.''

Without that torrid outside-shooting display late in the game, points were a lot harder to produce without Pruitt, as Young and guard Lodrick Stewart scored 19 of the Trojans' 27 first-half points.

USC missed its first nine shots and did not make a field goal until the 10:13 mark of the first half, when Stewart hit an off-balance jump shot. The Trojans were probably lucky to be down 15-6.

Young finished with a game-high 28 points, and Stewart (16) and Dwayne Shackleford (15) were the only other Trojans in double figures.

``I don't know what we can do to rebound better,'' Stewart said. ``Everyone is trying. It's hard to outrebound (Washington). They're a physical team.''

Washington outrebounded USC 38-24.

Floyd's frustration with the Trojans' lack of rebounding led to a quick hook for center Abdoulaye N'diaye, who was replaced by freshman Keith Wilkinson two minutes into the contest.

When N'diaye returned, he threw an errant pass that nearly hit Washington coach Lorenzo Romar and blamed guard Sead Odzic. N'diaye was immediately chewed out by Floyd when he returned to the bench.

``I made a couple mistakes and I was mad at myself and he just told me to take care of the ball,'' N'diaye said.

With 7:39 left, USC made two of its 12 shots and trailed 23-11. It would have been a lot worse if the Trojans weren't 7 for 7 on free throws.

But even after USC made four of its next seven attempts to cut the lead to 33-23, the Huskies (17-5, 6-5) went on an 11-4 run to close out the half with a comfortable 44-27 advantage.

USC shot just 32 percent (8-25) and was a dreadful 1 for 8 on 3-pointers. How bad was it? Roy (25 points) made only three less field goals than the Trojans in the first 20 minutes. Odzic, who started in place of Pruitt, went 1 for 6 in the first half.

It didn't get much better with 11 minutes left, as the Trojans were 12 for 37 (32 percent). Without Pruitt, even little-used freshman guard Collin Robinson made an appearance but missed three of four shots.

With the loss, USC dropped from fourth to six place in the Pacific-10 Conference standings.

Scott Wolf, [phone]

scott.wolf(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Washington guard Ryan Appleby, left, drives past USC's Dwayne Shackleford during the first half of Thursday's game.

Scott Cohen/Associated Press