Jan. 6, 2000

Box Score

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Jeff Trepagnier scored 18 points as Southern Cal defeated Washington State 83-61 in the Pacific 10 opener for both teams Thursday night in the Spokane Arena.

Southern Cal (8-5), which has won five of its past six, also got 17 points from Sam Clancy.

Washington State (5-5) was playing with just nine players because of injury and illness. It was new coach Paul Graham's first Pac-10 game.

Eddie Miller, who was playing in just his second game for WSU this season, had 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds for his second career double-double. Mike Bush had 15 points, six rebounds and four steals for the Cougars.

Brandon Granville scored eight points as Southern Cal took an early lead. Eight unanswered points brought Washington State to within three points at 16-13.

Chris Crosby, WSU's leading scorer, limped off the floor at that point with an ankle injury. Crosby later returned and scored 13 points to move into 19th in WSU career scoring. The Littleton, Colo., native now has 1,058 career points and moved past Ted Weirman (1,045/1967-69).

Brian Scalabrine and Trepagnier each scored five points during a 14-4 Southern Cal run that lifted the Trojans to a 30-17 lead with about eight minutes left in the first half.

Washington State scored eight unanswered points early in the second half to pull to within 48-38. But Scalabrine scored three straight baskets for the Trojans, and Trepagnier rammed home a slam to rebuild the lead to 56-41 with 13 minutes left.

Jan-Michael Thomas added 12 points for WSU.

To the delight of the Spokane Arena crowd, Paul Mencke became the first two-sport football-basketball player at WSU since Kitrick Taylor in the mid 1980s. Mencke played four minutes and grabbed four rebounds.

The Cougars were without the services of forwards Tyrone Evans or Bryan Whitehead, both of whom were out with knee injuries.

WSU returns to Pullman for the first time in 28 days to host No. 20 UCLA on Saturday. That game will tip at 3:00 at Friel Court.