Excitement? Ducks
even topped Garo
By JIM HUNTER
Of the Emerald
Even though Oregon basketball is considerably
better than it was last season, one thing remains the
same. It’s exciting.
In edging Washington, 69-65, Friday night, the
Ducks supplied more action than a Garo Yepremian
pass. Twenty-four hours later, the Webfoots sup
plied another shot of semi-high thrills before finally
handling Washington State, 77-63.
Oregon lost an eight point lead Friday and had to
go into overtime to get coach Dick Harter his first
Pac-8 win ever. Saturday night the Dudes watched
a 14-point lead disappear prior to securing the
weekend’s second win.
Harter’s Saturday post-game chat with reporters
was quite a contrast to the week before, when
Oregon was nipped by USC by a point. “It was a
good weekend,’’ Harter said between hand shakes
and back slaps. “Good for everyone, the players,
the team, the crowd.’’
Another hand shake. “How about those crowds?
It was great the way they stayed with us when we
were down and didn’t get on us too mud).”
Although Harter didn’t put a point value on the
worth of the crowd he was glad to have them on his
side Friday. The Ducks needed every plus it could
manage in staving off the Huskies.
Oregon hit a paltry 32.9 per cent the first half but
stayed in the game and even managed a 36-30 first
period lead by hitting 13 of 16 field goals from the 15
to 25 feet range.
At 17:49 of the second half Doug Little picked up
his fourth foul and Washington came out with a
press in hopes of fouling out the Cowboy. The
Huskies didn’t eliminate Little but it did limit Ron
Lee, the freshman picked up his fourth foul four
minutes later.
Between that 17 minute mark and the ensuing
nine minutes Washington had great success
working the ball inside and by 8:31 had tied the
game at 53-53. Doing the damage underneath was
the Huskies’ 6-10 center Lars Hansen. The fresh
man scored nine paints in that stretch. “Hansen
hurt us, really hurt us,” said Harter.
Even though Harter gambled and left Lee and
Little in the game the Huskies kept scoring and had
a three point lead, 63-60, as late as 2:36. But a Bruce
Coldren jumper and three foul shots by little,
compared to but two free throws by Washington
guard Louie Nelson tied it up and sent it into
overtime.
The Ducks shutout the Huskies in overtime.
Oregon hit no field goals themselves, but built up a
lead with free throws. Little hit one of two at 2:02,
Gerald Willett one of two at 1:31 and Lee put it away
with a pair with only 54 seconds remaining.
The Washington State contest, while not as tight,
still gave Oregon some anxious moments. The
Dudes jumped out to a 13-4 lead and coasted in at
halftime with a 41-27 advantage. Oregon got their
points off an effective fast break. The Cougars were
stifled by a combination of cold shooting and a
tough Oregon man-to-man defense.
Again the. Ducks had trouble in the final period
with the opponents big man underneath and
Washington State closed to within four, 45-51, by
14:34. As Harter put it, “We weren’t playing
defense at the start of the second half. Then we
started playing some defense and the offense picked
up. It always does when we play defense.”
Held to but four points the first six minutes 40
seconds of the last half, Oregon regrouped and put
through ll straight points. Lee lead the spurt with
six of those points.
The Ducks kept up the onslaught and had a 22
point lead late in the game.
While Lee had 23 points against the Cougars, and
Little 21, the standout performances came from
forward Billy Ingram and guard Paul Halupa.
Ingram had five points but played fine defense.
Halupa hit for 10 points and played with confidence
he hasn’t displayed since he was on the frosh team
in 1970-71.
“Ingram and Halupa turned the tide,” said
Harter. Billy did so many things defensively. He
was reacting tonight, better than he has all season.
There was such a difference between his play this
game and what he did against Washington.
“Paul played well because he’s made the ad
justment of not starting. It bothered him at first but
he’s conquered that now and I’m sure he’ll be
steady from now on.”
The two wins evened Oregon’s Pac-8 record at 2-2
and put them in a tie with Oregon State for third
place, behind UCLA and USC, both 4-0. The Ducks’
season record is now 9-5.
Harshman claims Huskies
were given ‘screw job’
By MERLIN MANN
Of the Emerald
Washington Coach Marv Harshman and his
Huskies found out what kind of “Pit” Mac Court
really is. After he watched his team’s chances for
the Pac-8 title stolen away by the scrappy Ducks,
Harshman had to agree that Mac Court is really a
snake pit.
Stunned by the successful dive-scramble-shoot
style of the Ducks, losing 69-85 in overtime, Harsh
man struck back wielding a spiteful, if not puerile
tongue in the locker room after the game.
Deeply embittered by his team’s two straight
losses to Stanford and Oregon, a couple of teams
that weren’t supposed to figure into the Huskies’
chances at the conference title or the NIT tour
nament berth, Harshman struck out at the game
referees, the time keepers, and even lashed out at
Oregon coach Dick Harter.
* Biggest screw since Texas ’
“We just got the biggest screw since down in
Texas,” Harshman crudely pronounced. “They
turn the heat up in our locker room at halftime.
They take a 29-minute halftime without telling us
about it. Those crazy nuts at the scorers' table even
held up the buzzer at the end (of the regulation
game) so Oregon could get an extra tip.”
Needless to say, the “extra tip” didn’t go in. With
three seconds left on the clock in the regulation
game, Ron Lae started to drive but suddenly
stopped and pumped up a 15-foot shot. Willett went
up for the rebound and attempted to tip the ball in.
He got one chance and it failed, sending the game
into overtime.
‘Whole thing unbelievable’
“We played as hard as we could. Yeah, we made
too many errors,” Harshman lamented, “but we
Oregon Daily Emerald
played hard. Our defense in the second half was our
best all year, but the whole thing was just un
believable.”
A comforting Seattle sportswriter brought to
Harshman’s attention that Doug Little and Ron Lee
each played the final 14 minutes with four fouls.
Harshman immediately retorted with, “Yeh, and
ten others they didn’t call.
“That one ref (Dan Sherwood) wasn’t going to
call anything against the home team, never will.
The cme guy (Mel Ross) tried to call a good game,
but Sherwood had his mind made up ahead of time.”
‘The kind of honeshityou get around here ’
Harshman then explained the situation around
the longer halftime. “You’re supposed to get 15
minutes. To go longer, you have to get permission
from the visiting team and from the league. We
weren’t told until our manager came down to tell us
when there was eight minutes left. It had no real
bearing on the game, but it’s just the kind of horse
shit you get around here, just the way you get
treated.”
Harter refused to reply to Harshman’s ac
cusations. He simply stated, “I don’t want to get
into an argument with Marv.” When told of Harsh
man’s attacks on the officiating and timekeeping,
Harter grimaced and looked away. He stressed,
however that he didn’t want to get into a media war
with Harshman, and left the impression he hardly
agreed with Harshman’s judgments.
An unusually high amount of fouls were called
during the game by Ross and Sherwood. A total of 48
were called in the game, each team whistled down
an equal 24 times.
Harshman left little doubt that he held Harter
responsible for the entire controversy, “You know
their guys wanted to win a ball game, and sure he
wanted to win, but we don’t need this type of thing in
basketball. There is a certain amount of ethics in
the game, or at least there was.”
JV Basketball
Ducklings lose 2
While their varsity counterparts were enjoying their most
sucessful weekend to date, the JV basketballers at Oregon
dropped two defeats at the hands of the Washington Huskie JV’s
and Claudia’s AAU squad. The JV’s are now languishing in the
throes of a three game losing streak, after starting out the
season with four straight wins.
The competition the junior Ducks faced over the weekend
will probably be the stiffest they will see the entire season.
Washington’s junior varsity team was unbeaten until a Saturday
night loss at Oregon State, and its second half spree in Friday
a 68-53 victory was their tenth consecutive victory.
There were two main reasons why Washington was able to
pull away from the Duck upstarts in the second half. First, the
Oregon JV’s were only to score a measly four points in the first
ten minutes of the second half, and secondly, Washington held
the talented Bob Catchings to four pants, his lowest point
production of the season. The freshmen was previously scoring
at a 28.3 pants per game clip.
Claudia, an AAU team from Portland made up of former
collegiate players, were even more impressive in whipping the
JV’s, 90-72. They enjoyed a scoring night where they could shoot
at will against the stiff JV defense, hitting .571 on Saturday
night. Claudia was led by Jim Marsh, a former USC Trojan,
who hit on fourteen of his eighteen shots to tally 31 pants.
Marsh, who moonlights as a Portland Trailblazer radio an
nouncer, had, at one time, hit on eight straight shot attempts.
Dan Beeson, Claudia’s center, could only find the range on seven
of eleven shots in scoring 17 pants.
Bob Catchings broke out of his one night scoring slump,
making up fa* lost ground with a stellar 30 point performance.
Catchings hit oi better than 50 per cent of his shots, and more
importantly, worked hard on defense, even late in the game
when the issue was never in doubt. Mark Carver, a non-starting
forward who is starting to see more playing time, had a strong
game, scoring 13 pants.
The Oregon JV’s will try to get untracked against Clark
College in Vancouver, Washington this Wednesday night. They
will return to action here in Eugene next Saturday, hosting the
Oregon State JV club in the preliminary game starting at 5:45.
Swimming
Cards win, 66-47
Don Van Rossen’s swimming team was hardly intimidated
by Stanford — fifth-ranked in the nation and possessor of the
world’s two fastest breaststrokers in Brian Job and Don
Hencken.
The Ducks went down to defeat, 66-47, but led the Cardinals
late in the meet Friday and didn’t fall out of it until, ap
propriately, the breaststroke.
Oregon set two school records and diver Peter Allis came up
with a lifetime best in the one-meter diving. That’s the way Van
Rossen’s squad went after Stanford.
Highlights included Gary Devereux’s victory over Hencken
in the 200-yard freestyle and John Topar’s win over Stanford’s
Frank Sutton in the 200-yard butterfly.
Topar’s time of 1:55.91 was good enough to make the NCAA
qualifying standard and Tony Ciochetti also made the NCAA
mark when he swam to a 1:59.68 in taking the 200-yard in
dividual medley.
Gymnastics
Vikings defeated
Bill Ballester thought the score should have been higher, but
Oregon’s high-flying gymnasts still cruised past Portland State
145.50 to 117.30 Friday night at Portland.
Horizontal bar specialist Greg Maxwell came up with the
Ducks’ most outstanding performance when he scored 9.20 and
Oregon either tied or won five events in easily defeating the
Vikings.
< See additional swimming, gymnastic details in Tuesday’s
Emerald)
W restling
Huskies in rout
They’re touting Washington as a possible NCAA wrestling
champion.
Oregon’s Ron Finley is a believer after the Ducks’ 36-2
drubbing at the hands of the Huskies Saturday night. Powerful
Washington won every match but one — where Mike Oilar
managed to draw with Huskie Brad Jacot at 126 pounds.
Friday the Ducks clobbered Seattle Pacific 31-15 Friday as
Oilar continued his unbeaten string.
Finley’s team will have its hands full again Thursday night
when Oregon State comes to town for a 7:30 match at Mac Court.
The Beavers, fresh off a convincing drubbing of third
ranked Oklahoma, are ranked right behind defending national
champion Iowa State and currently are unbeaten.