OREGON DAILY EMERALD SPORTS EXTRA
■ STANDOUT:
San Diego State’s Jodi
Nowlin-Tres led the
Aztecs in scoring,
rebounding and steals
enroute to the WAC
Championship/11
Tournament Hoops
1st and 2nd Round Games at Knoxville, Tenn.
(6) Oregon Tennessee (3)
(11) San Diego St.
First Round
Winners
Grambling (14)
Winner to Sweet 16
■ SOSU AZTECS:
San Diego State takes
its nation-leading
defense into the
) NCAA Tournament,
hoping to knock off
the Oregon Ducks/10
The NIT Tournament
Oregon men
suffer season
ending loss
■ NIT: Oregon made only seven
field goals in the entire second half,
blowing a 10-point halftime lead
The Associated Press
HONOLULU — Alika Smith had 23
points and Anthony Carter scored six
straight during a crucial second-half run
that carried Hawaii to a 71-61 victory
over Oregon on Wednesday night in the
.. first round of the
Mens
Basketball
■ LEADING
SCORERS: UH
Smith 23; UO
Milling 22
■ LEADING
REBOUNDERS:
UO Milling 16;
UH Furlong 9
■ ASSIST
LEADERS:
UH Carter 11;
UO Wilkins 3
National Invita
tion Tourna
ment.
The win sends
the Rainbows
(21-7) to Las Ve
gas for a second
round game
Monday against
Western Athletic
Conference rival
UNLV, which
defeated Mem
phis earlier
Wednesday.
During the regu
lar season,
Hawaii turned
back the Runnin’
Rebels twice.
Hawaii, down
by 10 points at
the half, went on
two runs in the final 20 minutes to pull
away from the Ducks, who didn’t make
a field goal for the first 8:02 of the sec
ond half.
The first run featured Eric Ambrozich,
who scored seven points during a 14-2
spurt. That put the Rainbows ahead for
only the second time since the early mo
ments of the game.
Then, with the scored tied at 52,
Hawaii went on a 14-5 run, sparked by
Carter’s string and four points by Smith.
That put the Rainbows ahead for good.
Oregon, meanwhile, struggled offen
sively. In the final 20 minutes, it missed
30 of 37 shots, while Hawaii, with Carter
and Smith doing most of the damage,
was 18-of-27 in the second half.
Turn to NIT, Page 13
The NCAA Tournament.
Looking for more
I/O Head coach Jody
Runge wants to get
her team to the next
level and earn respect
By Ryan Frank
Sports Reporter
Elwin Heiny was closing
out his 17-year Oregon
coaching career in a
woeful way in 1993. The
Ducks lost 16 of their final 19
games to record the school’s
worst Pacific-10 Conference
record ever at 3-15.
At that point, the Oregon ath
letic department decided it was
time to make a change.
Enter Jody Runge.
Fresh off a four-year stint as an
assistant coach at Missouri, her
fourth job as an assistant, Runge
was hired to lead the Oregon
women’s basketball program
back to the respectability and
success it once enjoyed.
But who knew it would come
so quickly?
In her first recruiting class at
Oregon, Runge landed Canadian
provincial MVP Cindie Edamura
to help her turn the Ducks
around.
In Runge, Edamura and high
school all-American Arianne
Boyer’s first season, they made a
comeback worthy of national
recognition. Oregon recorded the
largest turnaround in Pac-10 his
tory, improving its conference
record by 12 games, finishing in
third place with a 15-3 record.
“Coach Runge, when she got
here, like she always has, put
discipline and put hard work
and put doing the right thing to
be successful into her program,”
Oregon assistant coach Fred
Litzenberger said.
"And the kids that were here
Turn to RUNGE, Page 12
NCAA FIRST AND SECOND-ROUND CALENDAR
Thursday >
March
Men’s NCAA
The first game of the
tournament begins
at 9:15 a.m. PST with
the California Bears
playing Princeton in
Winston-Salem, N.C.
The tournament’s
top-seeded team,
Kansas, tips off at
9:25 a.m. against
Jackson State in
Memphis, Tenn.
Friday §f
March .
UO Women
The Oregon women's
basketball team has
its final practice in
Knoxville, Tenn.,
before playing San
Diego State on
Saturday. The Ducks
will have a closed
shootaround at
8 a.m. PST before its
game that will begin
at 3:06 p.m.
Saturday
March 5
UO Game Day
The Oregon women
play San Diego State
in the First Round
of the NCAA
Tournament. The
winner will play the
victor of the late game
between Grambling
and host Tennessee.
The Lady Vols have
won 4 of the last 10
national titles.
Sunday
March
NCAA
The Second Round of
the men’s tournament
continues.
In Knoxville, the two
winning teams of the
women’s First Round
games will have
closed practices and
answer questions
from the media in two
press conferences
during the day.
Monday 1
March 1
NCAA
The Second Round of
women’s tournament
continues.
In Knoxville, the
two winning teams
of the First Round
games played on
Saturday will battle
for a berth into the
Sweet 16. The winner
will move on to Iowa
City, Iowa.