Ducks advance in wild Midwest shoot out
By JEFF NIELSON
Emerald Sports Editor
TULSA — A battle of forwards
was expected, but no one could
have forecast the shoot out that
followed here in Mabee Center
Wednesday night as Oregon de
feated Oral Roberts 90-89in a reg
ional opening round game of the
National Invitation Tournament.
ORU’s Anthony Roberts poured
in 65 points breaking DePaul’s
..George Mikan’s 1945 NIT scoring
record of 53, and Oregon's Greg
Ballard hit a new school record of
43 as the two seniors hit over 65
per cent from the floor to account
for over half the total game points.
The Ducks now move on to the
NIT quarter-finals, to be held
March 14 and 15 in New York’s
Madison Square Garden, against
the winner of tonight’s Rutgers-St.
Bonaventure game in Princeton,
N.J.
Although the game was hard
fought, it wasn’t as close as the
score indicated. With the score
tied and nine minutes to go in the
second half, Ballard scored six
straight points to put Oregon up
73-67. The Titans, soon forced to
foul because of the Duck slow
down that started just over the
four-minute mark, managed to
come back as the Oregon players
missed on a couple of one-and
one situations. Roberts sank an
unmolested layin with one second
left to close the gap to one.
Oregon Coach Dick Harter, a
great believer in the control game,
was overwhelmed by the free
wheeling contest.
N.l.T
Alabama or Memphis State
Virginia Tech
Houston
Illinois State
Villanova
March 15
Oregon
March 15
March 17
Third Place
Seton Hall or Massachusetts
March 17
Championship
Wednesday’s results
Oregon 90, Oral Roberts 89
Virginia Tech 73, Georgetown 69
Villanova 71, Old Domion 68
Houston 33, Indiana State 82
Rutgers or St. Bonaventure
Oregon may be without freshman Jim Vokurka when it challenges California for the Pacific-8 Gymnastics
Championship in Berkeley Vokurka is still recovering from an injured shoulder, and has recently been hit by
the flu.
Oregon Daily Emerald
“That Anthony Roberts is just
too much,” smiled Harter outside
the jubilant visitors locker room.
“I'd never have thought a guy
would score over 30 on us. It’s just
unbelievable.
“The key to the game was when
Greg (Ballard) got hot and
matched Roberts down the
stretch. Roberts did it to us effort
lessly.”
Things started out slow for
Oregon at the beginning, though.
Taking advantage of the home
floor right away, the Titans jumped
to a tO-4 lead before five minutes
had elapsed. To make matters
worse, Harter was hit by two tech
nical fouls in the next two minutes,
giving ORU a 16-8 lead with 12:42
to go in the half.”
“I didn’t like the T’s,” said Har
ter, “but the refs called a good
game in the second half. On the
second technical, I was telling the
players to switch or something,
and the official told me I couldn’t
do it. I told him I had the right, and
must’ve added a few more
words."
The Ducks got past that obstar
cle, though, and calmed down,
getting balanced scoring the rest
of the half to tie it at intermission,
40-40.
As soon as the teams came out,
however, the fireworks started.
Roberts sank 14 of 19 shots, and
Ballard managed 11 of 13 in a
second half run-and-shoot game
that left both teams gasping. The
lead seesawed back and forth
with neither squad able to gain
more than a momentary aavan
tage, until Ballard’s streak put
Oregon ahead for good.
Ballard had nothing but good
words for his opponent.
"Roberts has a quick release, a
quick jump and is quick on the
floor,” he said. “He’s by far the
best pure outside shooter I’ve
played against.”
Roberts finished the night an in
credible 25 of 37, (68 per cent)
plus 15 of 16 shots from the
free throw line. Ballard wasn’t far
behind, sinking 16 of 22, (73 per
cent) from the field and 11 of 13
from the line. Ballard, however,
had quite a supportive cast. Kelvin
Small had his best night ever sink
ing six free throws in the last two
and a half minutes, finishing the
night with 13 points and 11 impor
tant rebounds.
Mike Drummond had 10, and
John Murray, Danny Mack, and
Ernie Kent added eight apiece to
give the Ducks a much more bal
anced attack than the Titans.
The game was not sold out,
though, as 9,263 people filled
most of the cavernous Center.
OREGON 90 —
Ballard 16 11-13 43, Kent 3 2-4 8, Small 2 9-1213,
Drummond 4 2-2 10. Closs 0 0-0 0, Murray 4 0-2 8.
Mack 32-48, Nelson 0 0-0 0, Moreck 0 0-0 0. Totals
32 26-37
ORAL ROBERTS 89 —
Roberts 2515-16 65, Scott 2 0-0 4, Dahms 40-08,
Dugger 1 4-4 6, Worrell 1 0-0 2, Rolle 0 0-0 0,
Hurdle 0 0-0 0, Tucker 0 2-2 2, Spencer 10-12,
Dublynn 0 0-0 0, Graham 0 0-0 0 Totals 34 21 -23.
Halftime — Oregon 40 ORU 40.
Total Fouls — ORU 29, Oregon 25.
Fouled out — Closs, Dahms, Dublynn.
Technicals —■ Oregon Coach Harter 2, Scott.
A: 9.263.
It’s Ducks vs. Cal
in Pac-8 rematch
By MIKE MARINO
Of the Emerald
BERKELEY—It is written in sport that while the regular season is
nothing but a warmup, the real season begins with the playoffs.
That certainly holds true tonight, as two of the top gymnastics
squads in the country, Oregon and California, square off here in the
Pacififc-8 Championships.
Compulsory competition begins tonight, with optionals on Friday
and individual finals on Saturday, all starting times are 7:30 p.m.
. Although it is entitled, “The Pac-8’’ Championships, it is really a
grudge match between the Ducks and the Bears. While Cal has won the
last nine conference championships:, they have had a mediocre dual of
3-5, while Oregon is undefeated at 11 -0. So it would appear from those
figures that Oregon is an easy choice for the dethronement.
That is not so, however, as last year Cal (2-5) knocked off Oregon
(15-1) in the Pac-8 meet and finished third in the NCAA. With nine
returning lettermen this year, the pattern could be repeated.
“I’m tired of losing to Cal,” said Duck Coach Bill Ballester. “For the
people who've been around for awhile — the seniors, juniors and myself
— it’s developed into almost a hatred.”
This year, however. Ballester feels the Ducks have an eage with
freshmen Miki Moyal, Breck Grigas and Gene Christensen. “These
kids have never nad to lose to Cal before,” he said, "so they come in
unafraid without all the emotion.
Indeed, Moyal and Grigas have been the all-around leaders of the
team this year and it appears they must do well if Oregon hopes to beat
the Bears. The Ducks are third-ranked in the country with a top score of
219 points.
And while Oregon is going with mostly young talent, the Bears are
relying on experienced veterans, notably Olympian Tom Beach. He’s
Cal's top all-around man and a standout on the high bar, parallel bars
and the rings.
“Ninety-five per cent of the points in a meet are scored by the
all-around men,” said Cal Coach Hal Frey. “So we re relying not only on
Tom, but also on our other guys like Dave Eby, Warren Long and Mike
Dubos."
Cal has fine ath'etes on the individual apparatus, but the key to its
victories over the years have been high compulsory scores and what
Frey calls, “preparation."
“We could be at a higher level of fitness than we are now, said
Frey, “but we re using the dual meets to prepare for this, and our
compulsories have been improving steadily. We’ve been over 210 in the
last two meets.”
“We re going into this blind," said Frey wearing the smile of a man
who’s either nervous or who knows something. “We don't know how
good they are, and they don’t know how good we are.”
Oregon could be hampered by the loss of freshman standout Jim
Vokurka, who in addition to injuring his shoulder, came down with the flu
and could miss the competition. Nevertheless, Ballester feels as confi
dent as usual on his team’s chances. When asked by a Bay Area
television man if the raves about his freshmen were true, the coach
replied, "I hope so."
With the compulsories starting tonight, he’ll soon see.
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