Cardinal hold off USC in the final minute 70-62

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The game didn’t go down to the final shot the way the other three Pac-12 games in the Bay Area did this weekend. Still, it was too close for comfort for Stanford.

With No. 13 Utah waiting on deck in Salt Lake City on Thursday, the Cardinal were in danger of losing their third straight game, this one to last-place USC, which had a two-point lead with less than eight minutes left.

Instead, Anthony Brown hit a big three-pointer to give the Cardinal the lead for good, and Stanford salted away a 70-62 win in the final minute Sunday night at Maples Pavilion.

“We really needed it,” Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins said. “We needed to get back on track.”

He said the Cardinal’s defense in the second half was “as good as it’s been all year.”

His team had lost its previous games to Washington State and UCLA, its first back-to-back losses of the season. A defeat to a team that had lost its previous seven would have been damaging to Stanford’s NCAA Tournament chances.

Stanford forward Reid Travis scores against USC in the second half at Maples Pavilion. Stanford won 70-62. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) Stanford forward Reid Travis scores against USC in the second half at Maples Pavilion. Stanford won 70-62. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Cardinal hold off USC in the final minute 70-62 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

With the win, the Cardinal (16-7, 7-4 Pac-12) stayed tied with Oregon and Oregon State for third place.

Chasson Randle scored 17 points and made a big steal with a minute left and Stanford nursing a 65-61 lead. Moments earlier, USC’s Katin Reinhardt was on his way to an uncontested layup when his knee went out on him. Although he returned to the game shortly thereafter, the miss was costly.

With 33 seconds left, Brown made three foul shots after he was hit in the act of shooting a trey by Elijah Stewart.

Stanford enjoyed a 50-35 rebounding advantage, grabbing 17 offensive boards and scoring 20 second-chance points. Oddly enough, the leading rebounder in the game was 6-foot-3 guard Marcus Allen with 11. He also scored 10 points.

“We call him the spark plug,” Randle said. “He definitely did that tonight, making plays and finishing at the rim.”

The Trojans had to play all but four minutes of the first half without leading scorer and rebounder Nikola Jovanovic because of foul trouble. Still, they were in it until almost the end.

“They gave us everything they had, and we had to give them everything we had coming down the stretch,” Randle said.

Stefan Nastic had 15 points, and Brown and Rosco Allen had 11 points each for Stanford. Reinhardt led USC (9-14, 1-10) with 19 points, hitting 5 of 7 three-point tries, and Jordan McLaughlin added 18.

Reinhardt and McLaughlin each hit four three-pointers in the first half as the Trojans forged a 39-33 lead at the break. In the second half, though, Reinhardt was 1-for-2 and McLaughlin 0-for-4.

“We had to close out on them to make sure they couldn’t just catch and shoot the basketball,” Dawkins said. In the first half, “they were very comfortable shooting them.”

Stanford shot 37 percent from the floor and made only 6 of 23 three-point attempts. The Cardinal won mainly because of their rebounding and their 25-8 advantage in free-throw tries. They outscored the Trojans at the line 20-3.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald