Dijon Thompson was the most outspoken of all the Bruins about
the importance of ending a three-game losing streak to USC. But as
he stepped to the foul line with a chance to send the game to
double overtime Wednesday night, it was the Trojans’ Derrick
Craven who did all the talking.
“I was saying things so he would miss like, “˜Look at
all the people,'” the Trojan guard said after
USC’s 78-77 victory. “I guess it worked.”
It did work, leaving Thompson speechless.
Trailing 78-76, Thompson was fouled on a running 5-footer with
less than one second remaining. Thompson missed his first free
throw before unintentionally banking in the second one, sending the
Bruins to a stunning defeat in the one game Thompson said the
Bruins could not afford to lose.
“I’m disappointed I didn’t make it,”
Thompson said as he walked away from reporters camped outside the
UCLA locker room in the bowels of the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
“That’s it. That’s all I have to say.”
Thompson did say that he ignored Craven’s comments and the
bedlam in the stands, but UCLA coach Ben Howland wasn’t so
sure.
When asked whether he thought the jabbering affected Thompson as
he strode to the line, Howland responded tersely.
“I don’t know,” he said.
The errant free throw capped a nightmarish evening for Thompson,
UCLA’s leading scorer on the season.
Thompson, who is averaging 14.5 points per game, tallied just
nine points in 38 minutes on 3-for-9 shooting from the field. The
Trojans’ physical, athletic guards like Craven and Desmon
Farmer harassed him throughout the game, especially in overtime,
where his lone point was inadvertent.
“They climb up into your jersey,” Howland said.
“They’re very aggressive. It was hard for Dijon to even
bounce the ball against them.”
Thompson went scoreless in the first half, and did not register
a point until finally burying a 3-pointer from the left corner with
10:01 to play. But after a flurry of buckets late in regulation
seemed to snap him out of his slump, his struggles came to a head
in the final minute of overtime.
It was his foul on Farmer’s driving layup with 27 seconds
left that allowed USC to take a two-point lead, and it was his
errant 3-pointer on the ensuing possession that paved the way for
the final play.
After the first free throw bounced off the back rim and high
into the air before clanging off the iron and caroming to the
floor, Thompson grimaced, knowing his quest to defeat the Trojans
would likely have to wait another year.
“If he made it he’d have been the hero,” UCLA
guard Cedric Bozeman said.
But he didn’t, leaving the Bruins dumbfounded once
more.