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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1997)
ON THE TUBE Saturday, Women's College B-ball Oregon vs. Arizona State, KVAL (8), 6p.m. Oregon women move into third place with 85-81 win ■ REVIEW: The Ducks hold on to win after blowing a 22-point lead in the second half By Ryan Frank Sports Reporter It was not pretty, but the Ducks will take it. After opening up a 22-point lead in the second half, three of Oregon’s key players fouled out as the Arizona Wildcats clawed to within two points with just 18 seconds remaining. But that was as close as they would get. Guard Cindie Edamura hit two free throws with less than six seconds left to give Oregon an 85-81 win in Tucson. The win allows the Ducks (17-6 overall, 10-4 Pa cific-10 Conference) to leap-frog past Arizona (19-5, 9-4) into sole possession of third place in the Pac 10, and gives them a chance to finish in second place if they win their final four games, including a date with sec ond-place Southern California at McArthur Court next Thursday. While Oregon was able to break the Wildcats' press for easy bas kets in the first half, the second half was a different story. The Ducks opened the second half with a 9-0 run and went up by 22 points on a layup by Renae Fe gent with 14:56 left in the game. Then the Wildcats began chipping away at Oregon’s lead. Arizona cut Oregon’s lead to 12 points with less than five minutes left when the Ducks started to drop like flies. With 4:44 remaining, Fegent fouled out with a team-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting. One minute, 30 seconds later, Arianne Boyer fouled out with 16 points. Forty-five seconds after Boyer fouled out, Jenny Mowe was gone. During that span, Arizona went on an 8-0 run, and eventually pulled within two points, 83-81, be fore Edamura hit the two free throws to put Oregon up by four. Ducks win, Jerry celebrates ■ VICTORY: Kenya Wilkins scored six of Oregon’s final eight points to help beat No. 13 Arizona By Andrea DeYoung Assistant Sports Editor It all came down to free throws. With 19 seconds to go, Henry Madden went to the line to shoot one-and-one. Two swishes, and the Oregon men’s basketball team was up by four points. Ten seconds later, Kenya Wilkins Men’s Basketball ■ LEADING SCORERS: UA Bibby 22, UO Lawrence 20 ■ LEADING REBOUNDERS: UABramlett11, UO Milling 11 ■ ASSIST LEADERS: UA Terry 6, UO Ramaker 5, Wilkins 5 hit two to put the I Ducks up by six. And that would be the i game. Final score: Oregon ! 78, Arizona 72. For the first time | since Dec. 7 against | Fresno State, the i Ducks (15-8 overall, | 6-8 in the Pacific-10 | Conference) beat a i ranked opponent, j The Wildcats came j into the game ranked j No. 13 in the nation. | But instead of con I centrating on how to I beat Arizona, Oregon i looked at itself. “In the pre-game, i we watched some of the Fresno State game,” Wilkins said. “Instead of focusing on Arizona, we focused on us. Coach [Jerry Green] showed us how we were, the mind set we were in and the defense we were playing. I think that was the difference tonight. We saw that and remembered. We could see the difference clearly. So we just went out and tried to play like that team we saw on film.” A newly inspired Oregon team took to the court running in the first half, going up 18-4 in the first six minutes. Terik Brown hit three consecutive three-pointers before be Turn to VICTORY, Page 12 MARK McTYRE/Emerakj Oregon fans carry head coach Jerry Green around McArthur Court following his team’s 78-72 win. ■ GREEN: Oregon overcame a week full of distractions to finally beat Arizona By Chris Hansen Sports Reporter On a night that started out with Oregon head coach Jerry Green addressing a crowd that was sombered by a week’s worth of accusations, innuendos and punishment, it was only fitting that it ended with Green being paraded on the same crowd’s shoulders in joyous celebration. In a statement given six min utes before tip-off. Green pleaded with the fans, particularly the students, to not be short of en thusiasm in light of the chunk of student section seating that had been roped off by the ASUO. “This is a very special place, and you are a very special group of fans,” Green said in his ad dress. “We need you, we’re with you, and if our team was as good as you are, we would be unde feated and nobody would even be close to us.” The importance of having the crowd into the game couldn’t be overstated, particularly since Oregon was playing 13th-ranked Arizona, a team that the Ducks had failed to beat in 12 straight games. In fact, Arizona was the one Pacific-10 Conference team that Green had never beat. But when all was said and done, the Ducks squeaked out a 78-72 win, and the students re sponded by rushing the floor cor ralling Green at mid-court and hoisting him up on to their shoulders. “I’m just proud of our fans,” Green said after the game. “I hate Turn to GREEN, Page 12 Oregon Club hockey team to battle for Pacific-8 supremacy ■ TOURNAMENT: Oregon faces California in the first round of conference playoffs in L.A. By Alex Pond Freelance Sports Reporter The Oregon Club hockey team travels to Anaheim, Calif., this weekend for the Pa cific-8 Hockey Conference Tournament with one thing in mind: winning the whole thing. “We absolutely want to win it,” head coach Nick Ham said. “Getting there is only part of the battle. I’m real proud of the team and all of the guys that got us there, but winning is what my intent is when I go down there.” The quest for the conference champi onship begins Saturday at Disney Ice in Anaheim. The Ducks (17-6-1 overall, 7-5-1 Pac-8) are paired against California (7-6-2 Pac-8) in a first-round game. The Ducks and the Golden Bears have met one other time this season on Nov. 16 in Oakland with California coming out on top by a score of 8-6. Oregon feels it was robbed of a victory by the referees in that game and is ecstatic to be matched up against California in the tournament. “I m real happy we get to play Cal again this year,” Ham said. "We are definitely going to exact some revenge on [Califor nia]... With fair referee ing, we’ll beat [Califor ma). I’m very confident in that.” Ham said that the key to victory against the Golden Bears is to stick to the basics and be mentally prepared. “The first thing it’ll take is that we walk onto the ice ready to play hockey,” he said. “I know that the players are going to be pumped — they’re going to be excited, and the first few minutes orthe game are going to be a settling down time. “We’ve got to calm down and play smart hockey, heads-up hockey, and that’s all it’s going to take to beat [California].” If the Ducks do get by the Golden Bears, they will face either Stanford or USC on Sunday for the championship. If Oregon loses, it will play for third-place on Sun day.
