Chatman Puts Hurt on Ducks : College basketball: Junior guard, who chose basketball after suffering an ankle injury playing football, helps USC win, 85-56.

Rodney Chatman, who could have played football at Notre Dame, instead chose to play basketball at USC, and for that the Trojans are thankful.

Chatman, USC’s top reserve, scored a career-high 15 points as the Trojans routed Oregon, 85-56, before 3,137 at the Sports Arena Saturday. It was USC’s most lopsided victory ever over the Ducks.

Chatman was one of the best high school football players in Florida. A quarterback and defensive back, Chatman threw for 957 yards, ran for 657 yards and seven touchdowns. He also picked off four passes for New Smyrna Beach (Fla). High in 1988.

Chatman, also the Central Florida basketball player of the year, was recruited by Notre Dame as a defensive back. But he decided to concentrate on basketball after he suffered an ankle injury while playing football.

“I decided that I’d quit whatever sport I got hurt in first,” Chatman said. “And I got hurt in football.”

Of Saturday’s performance, the 6-3 junior guard said: “Coach (George) Raveling gave me a lot of confidence out there today. He kept telling me to shoot the ball.”

Chatman followed Raveling’s advice, making six of nine shots, including three of four three-point shots in 23 minutes off the bench. He also had five rebounds, five assists and one steal.

“I thought Rodney Chatman played a great game,” Raveling said. “He’s made some big contributions coming off the bench. A lot of times they don’t show in the stat sheet because it was his defense and intelligence.

“Rodney and (forward Mark) Boyd are by far the smartest players on the team. It’s not even close. A couple of weeks ago I talked to Rodney and told him that he should think seriously about being a coach. Even when he’s on the bench he’s always offering suggestions. He sees the game in a manner that’s unusual for a player.”

Chatman was able to get open because the Ducks concentrated on stopping guard Harold Miner, who scored 22 points, making seven of 15 shots, as the Trojans (11-3, 3-1) won their third consecutive game.

Oregon (5-8, 1-3), which lost to No. 2 UCLA by 28 points on Thursday, has been riddled by injuries, losing starting guards Jordy Lyden and Andre Collier. Center Bob Fife, who started all but one game last season, decided to redshirt to bulk up and guard Terrell Brandon left school a year early to enter the NBA draft.

“Obviously, we have a very young, inexperienced team,” Oregon Coach Don Monson said. “We were playing out of sync and at the beginning of the game we were down 14-2. It wasn’t the defense or rebounding, it was just bad offense.”

Raveling knows what Monson is going through.

“I have a lot of empathy for them because there are a lot of us in the league that would struggle if we had to face the hardships that Don has had to go through,” Raveling said. “He lost the league MVP (Brandon) and one of his most experienced players (Fife) decided he’s going to redshirt. And then he lost Lyden and Collier.

“Somebody told me that it’s the biggest margin USC’s ever had over Oregon. But it should have an asterisk behind it because we beat a wounded team. I’m just trying to be realistic about it. If they had all the right players it would have been a different ball game.”

USC got off to a 16-2 start and led by 19 points at halftime.

Trojan Notes

Antoine Stoudamire led Oregon with 19 points. . . . Duck guard Jordy Lyden will sit out the rest of the season because of sprained ligaments in his right foot. It was thought that he would be sidelined for four to six weeks after he was injured on Jan. 4 against Missouri. . . . USC forward Mark Boyd sat out his second consecutive game because of an ankle injury. . . . The Trojans had a season low seven turnovers and have committed only 30 in their last three games. . . . USC’s largest margin of victory over Oregon before Saturday was 26 points, in 1966.