Oregon invincibility ends unexpectedly
By MIKE YORKEY
Of the Emerald
Oregon’s stock portfolio in the
Pacific-8 race plummeted thanks
to a shoddy weekend of play
which saw the Ducks split a pair of
games in the opening conference
series.
Oregon used mirrors and
Kamikaze willpower to nip Stan
ford, 84-83 Friday night, but lan
guished to a 60-58 loss to the
California Bears Saturday.
How the uneven weekend
transpired for the previously un
beaten Ducks (1-1 in league and
10-1 overall) is a question that
Dick Harter and his assistant
coaches will be poring over this
week.
In the Cal game, the Webfoots
were beaten at their own
game—hard-nosed, chin-to-chin
defense—and that is what hurt.
“They didn't junk us; they
played a man-to-man very effec
tively against us,” said Harter in
the lockerroom post-mortem. "Ive
always said it would take a tough
man-to-man defense to beat us."
That’s exactly what Bears went
out and did.
For five crucial minutes—from
12:01 to 6:44 in the second
half—the Ducks failed to register a
single point as the scoring tide
turned against them and their
shooting confidence slowly ebbed
until the Ducks looked suddenly
human and beatable.
It wasn’t always that way.
Oregon started the weekend
playing their charged, chaotic
brand of ball against Stanford,
wiping out several Cardinal leads
in both halves.
Both clubs remained intense
throughout the game, but
Oregon's conditioning proved to
be the decidng factor in the last
ten minutes. Ronnie Lee’s 15
second-half points—with some of
the shots were bordering on the
miraculous—enabled Oregon to
pull ahead by six with 37 seconds
remaining.
But Stanford stormed right
back, and nearly sneaked off with
the win before falling, 84-83. The
way the Ducks won, almost back
ing in, later proved to be an omen
that things were not all that right
with the Duck machine that had
rolled to nine previous victones.
“That was our gift of the year,
that's for sure,” said Mark Barwig,
who drew the wrath and the
clenched hand of Stanford's Rich
Kelley during the game.
But California wasn’t in the
mood of playing the Three Wise
mer. bearing gifts Saturday night.
The Ducks began the game
playing solid, pattern basket
ball, were leading Dy 10 and the
Mac Court denizens were hoping
for a laugher to sit back and enjoy.
swimmers blitz Ashland
By JEFF NIELSON
Of the Emerald
ASHLAND—Oregon varsity
swimming Coach Don Van
Rossen Thursday called the
Oregon-California Decathlon
championships "a good training
exercise.'
If Doctor Don uses Ashland
as a guide, the Ducks are doing
fine Gary Hidle, Roy Clark, John
Heilman and John McConnochie
all won two events as Oregon eas
ily defended their title in the
Southern Oregon College meet.
The Ducks were first with 15
I “ - -—
points, while SOC was a distant
second place with 42 points.
For Roy Clark, the meet was
especially gratifying. Clark won
the 100 yd. breaststroke in
2:13.84 to capture 96 out of a pos
sible 100 points and upset John
McConnochie, the number two
swimmer on the team in the final
standings, 719.3 to McCon
nochie s 711.4.
“Clark is probably the most im
proved swimmer on the team at
this point. ’ said Van Rossen. "He
worked extremely hard during
Chnstmas. and he's improved a
lot
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But foul trouble and Dick
Harter’s subsequent attempts to
find able substitutes to keep the
oiled machine running failed.
“We didn’t get a good effort off
our bench,’’ said Harter, who
added in disgust, “We all had a
bad night, players, coaches...”
Three starters comprising the
rebounding wall fouled out:
Gerald Willett, Stu Jackson and
Greg Ballard.
Added to the foul troubles was
the shooting woes, especially
from the free throw line. Four
times in the last 10 minutes a Duck
player toed the line and found
concrete in their arms. And when
the free throws failed to drop, the
Duck offense lost its poise, and
the defense bagan breaking
down.
Furthermore, it was California
who was playing the intelligent
basketball in the stretch drive,
boxing out on rebounds, playing
keep-away from the Oregon press
and sinking eight of 10 free
throws.
“We had great poise, stuck
with our plays," said Cal coach
Dick Edwards. “We played oppor
tunistically and just kept our
poise."
As each Duck player began the
slow walk to the Oregon bench
after receiving the fifth foul, so the
scoring load fell upon Ronnie
Lee's shoulders.
For even Ronnie the Miracle
Worker, the task was too great. An
hour after the California loss, Lee
sat hunched against his yellow
locker stall. Wearing a pair of
dress slacks and nothing more,
Lee hung his head and folded his
hands, his face etched in agony as
he relived the dying moments of
Oregon’s first loss of 1974-75.
But not even Ronnie could bring
those moments back.
I1
Photo by John Johns
Flatfooted Web foots watch Carl Bird
THE BON MARCHE
Bridal Show and Champagne Brunch
January 25, 1975, 11 o’clock a.m.
Thrill to the season’s most eventful showing of new wedding
gowns, groom’s attire and bridal exhibits for spring and summer, while
enjoying an elegant Champagne Brunch at Stuart Anderson’s Black
Angus Restaurant. The impressive collection will include new looks
from traditional to modern designs modeled by University of Oregon
students.
Seating limited to 300. Grooms encouraqed to attend with their
brides. Tickets, 3.00 each, available from The Bon Marche Bridal
Department, Second Floor.
Hundreds of dollars worth of valuable door prizes a bridal
gown with veil and weekend honeymoon lodgings at The Pad
dock Motel, Yachats, Oregon will be awarded.*
‘Prizes awarded to those with closest guesses to the number of pennies displayed at the show.
presenting