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Cougs pull away from USC

Washington State's Kyle Weaver passes USC's Lodrick Stewart during the first half. Weaver, who had 10 points, was one of three Cougars to score in double figures. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
Washington State's Kyle Weaver passes USC's Lodrick Stewart during the first half. Weaver, who had 10 points, was one of three Cougars to score in double figures. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

LOS ANGELES — Jeff Varem says his recent success is due to his teammates getting him the ball at the right time.

He’s probably being too modest.

Varem scored nine of his 21 points in the first 9 minutes of the second half Saturday night to help Washington State break open a tight game, and the Cougars beat Southern California 69-52 in a Pacific-10 basketball game.

“Jeff has really played well in the conference,” WSU coach Dick Bennett said. “He’s pretty much outsized every time. He’s really been a force in the conference games.”

Varem, a 6-foot-6, 240-pound senior from Nigeria, is averaging 17.7 points in the Cougars’ four Pac-10 games. He shot 10 of 13 against the Trojans, giving him 28 field goals in 41 attempts in conference play. He is averaging 10.4 points overall.

“We stayed together,” Varem said. “The UCLA game, we didn’t execute right in the second half. The coaches told us to just stay together, play hard.”

The Cougars lost at UCLA 80-77 in double overtime on Thursday night.

“It still stings,” Bennett said. “It was a split (in Los Angeles). Now that we got it, I’m pleased. I thought we played well tonight. They made their runs at us, we kept our poise and found the open man.

“The second half, I thought we tightened the defense and that was the difference.”

Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver added 10 points each for the Cougars (7-6, 2-2 Pac-10), who shot 63.6 percent in the second half (14 of 22) and 58.7 percent overall.

USC shot 28 percent after halftime (7 of 25) and a season-low 34 percent overall.

Lodrick Stewart scored 14 points for the Trojans (8-7, 0-4). USC is off to its worst conference start since beginning the 1990-91 season with four league losses before rebounding to make the NCAA Tournament.

“We ran our offense well. We just can’t shoot,” USC interim coach Jim Saia said. “But we lost the game on defense. Usually we play pretty good defense. They cut us up.

“We’ve hit a lull. We’ve got to try to fix it. I’m very concerned, but we’ve got 14 more games. We’ll try to get into the Pac-10 tourney. Maybe we can turn things around, and it’ll click.”

Neither team led by more than four points until the Cougars went on an 18-4 run to finish the first half and start the second for a 42-29 lead. Low scored his first five points of the game to complete the spurt.

The Trojans closed within nine points before two layups by Varem and baskets by Weaver and Chris Schlatter put the Cougars on top 51-34 lead with 8 1/2 minutes remaining.

USC scored the next eight points to draw within nine again before Varem’s dunk with 5:03 left triggered a 18-10 spurt to finish the game.