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Emerald
Oregon 85, Australia 76
Oregon wins final exhibition
Head coach Ernie Kent had
more questions presented than
answered in the Ducks’ defeat
of the Outback All-Stars
By Rob Moseley
Sports Reporter
With eight days left before his team’s
first regular season game of the 1997-98
season, Oregon men’s basketball coach
Ernie Kent has more than a few questions
to answer after his team defeated the Out
back All-Stars, 85-76, Wednesday night
before 5,514 fans at McArthur Court.
Among the problems Kent is faced
with in preparation for the Ducks’ opener
fatigue factor.
inov. zi at tirignam
Young are questions at
the point guard posi
tion, his team’s 30
turnovers against the
All-Stars, an Australian
club team touring the
United States, and the
i was really disappointed in our exe
cution overall, and particularly down the
stretch,” Kent said. “In the last 12 min
utes of the game, we had an opportunity
to jump out to a big lead and we hit the
wall. I have to question where our condi
tioning is.”
Oregon took its biggest lead of the game
on a Yasir Rosemond three-pointer that
put the Ducks ahead 70-48 with just over
eight minutes to play, but four three-point
ers by the All-Stars’ Cameron Dickinson
and little effort by a tired Oregon defense
allowed the Australians to within eight.
However, Oregon’s ability to hit free
throws at the end of what became an ugly
game allowed the Ducks to seal the victory.
Play stopped with 1 minute, 5 seconds
remaining in the second half as Oregon’s
Terik Brown and Troy Pilan of the All
Stars exchanged words. As Brown turned
away, Pilan knocked the ball out of his
hands and a minor international incident
ensued. Henry Madden quickly stepped
in to deter any physical contact between
the two, but not before Pilan and Donte
Quinine traded shoves, drawing a techni
cal foul for each. Pilan’s was his fifth foul,
Turn to EXHIBITION, Page 12
CHAD PATTESON/Emerald
Senior Henry Madden had two of his game-high 24 points on this first-half dunk.
Hey, Ducks,
please don’t
go to Boise
As the Ducks put the finish! ng
touches on the upset of Washing
ton last Saturday, theirwilting
bowl hopes were taken off life
support and given a pretty healthy progno
sis.
Win just one of the remaining two games
and the Ducks become bowl-eligible. Win
them both and it would seem, with a 7-4
record, that they would be all but guaran
teed to venture into the postseason for the
fir«t time* einrn 1 QGR
If that scenario plays
out, Ducks fans can pack
their bags and plan on en
joying a holiday vacation
in cities such as Honolu
lu, Tucson, San Diego or
... Boise.
Boise!?
You’ve got to be kid
ding me.
When I think of cities
that host bowl games, 1
Alex
Pond
mink warm climates. 1 think Miami, New
Orleans, Tempe or the aforementioned
cities.
I don’t think of Boise, Idaho.
But that could be a likely place for the
Ducks to be, playing in the Sports Humani
tarian Bowl, come bowl time.
A Pacific-10 Conference team will play in
the Rose Bowl, Cotton or Holiday bowls,
Sun Bowl and Aloha Bowl.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the top
four teams get those berths, but that will
likely be the case.
Barring an unforeseen collapse by one of
the four teams tied for first place in the con
ference now, Oregon, at best, will be the
fifth Pac-10 team looking fora howl.
The Ducks could likely end up in either
the Humanitarian Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl or
the Independence Bowl, which all have
open berths available. The Copper Bowl,
now known as the Insight.com Bowl, could
also become a possibility if the Big 12 fails
to qualify a sixth team for bowl play.
This is basically all speculation at this
point. And if the Ducks lose one of their last
two games and are barely eligible with six
wins, maybe they should consider them
selves lucky to be playing anywhere in the
Turn to POND, Paae9
WENDY FULLER/Emerald
Ernst has tallied 13 or more kills in each
of her last seven matches.
Ernst not ready to throw in towel just yet
After recovering from a kidney
infection early in the season,
outside hitter Madeline Ernst is
back to her dominating form
By Rob Moseley
Sports Reporter
With four matches left in the 1997 volleyball season,
four chances for Oiegon to earn its first win of the Pacific
10 Conference season, which thus far has included 14
losses, junior Madeline Ernst takes a moment to look
back on what was supposed to be the Ducks’ breakout
season.
"Obviously this year has been disappointing to us,’’
the 6-foot-l outside hitter from St. Paul, Ore., says. “We
were hoping for a higher level of success than we have
been able to achieve.”
But with those four matches left, Ernst cannot be
caught looking ahead to next year.
“This season’s not over yet, we have four matches
left,” she says. “I’ll start to think about next year when
Washington’s over. ”
This was supposed to be Ernst’s breakout season as
well. She had a team-high for kills in a single match last
season with 25 against Arizona State and was expected
to replace the graduated Amy Barnes, Oregon’s MVP the
past two seasons.
With 12 kills in the 1997 home opener against Idaho
State on Sept. 12, it appeared Ernst was confident
enough to step into the leadership role vacated by
Barnes.
“She played great volleyball at the beginning of the
season,” head coach Cathy Nelson says. “And our team
was playing great volleyball.”
But before she had a chance to display that leadership
in the Pac-10 the following weekend, she was incapaci
tated by a kidney infection.
Ernst missed the Ducks' opening weekend of the Pac
10 schedule Sept. 19 and 20, then sat out the Sept. 24
match on the road against Santa Clara before returning to
action that weekend in the Bay Area, where she had just
10 kills in seven games and a hitting percentage of minus
.048 against California.
"It took her so long to get her game back," Nelson says.
“Any time you have to just basically lay down for 10
days, it’s going to take you awhile to get back into things.
It took her about a month to get back into the swing of
things.”
It wasn’t until an Oct. 18 meeting with Arizona, al
most a month after the initial infection, that Ernst began
to regain her early season form. Since her 13-kill perfor
mance that night, Ernst has had six straight matches with
at least that many, including 21 against both Portland
and Southern California and 18 against Oregon State.
“What we’re seeing now is what we saw earlier in the
Turn to ERNST, Page 9
(( What we’re
seeing now is
what we saw
earlier this
season when
the team was
doing well
and Madeline
was a
dominating
outside
hitter. ”
Cathy Nelson
UO head coach