CHAD PATTESON/Emerald
Clockwise from top left: ReShawn Lewis, Lindsey Dion, Camber Ellingson, Angelina Wolvert and Brianne
Mebarry. Karen Piers is not pictured.
Angelina Wolvert and Brianne Meharry head
a talented six-member freshman class
By Alex Pond
Sports Reporter
From unexpected misfortune often comes
opportunity.
Misfortune struck the Oregon women’s
basketball team early in the season when a
case of tendinitis took over in sophomore center
Jenny Mowe’s right knee. The injury caused her to
miss the Ducks' past six games and will likely keep
her out the rest of the 1997-98 campaign.
That leaves Oregon extremely thin in the post;
the 6-foot-5 Mowe being the only true center on
Oregon’s roster and the player expected to carry
the offensive and defensive load inside.
The opportunity was there for someone, anyone,
to step up and try to follow in Mowe’s gigantic
footsteps.
Enter Brianne Meharry and Angelina Wolvert,
two members of a talented six-player freshmen
class that gives fans a glimpse of the future of Ore
gon basketball.
“Obviously, Bri and Angelina have kind of been
thrown into the fire with Jenny being hurt,” Ore
gon head coach Jody Runge says. “I think they’re
doing amazingly well considering their youth. ”
Meharry, a 6-1 forward from Gladstone and a
product of the famed Oregon City High School bas
ketball program, is Oregon’s leading scorer at 13.4
points per game and leader in total rebounds with
5.5 as the Ducks are off to an up and down 5-5 start
to the 1997-98 season.
She has quickly developed from a player expect
ed to simply fill a role while adjusting to the col
lege game to one of Oregon’s go-to players.
That much was evident in Oregon’s 59-53 loss to
Kansas on Dec. 29. The Ducks repeatedly looked to
Meharry for big shots as they rallied from sizable
deficits several times before ultimately coming up
short. Meharry responded with her best game as a
Duck as she scored 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting
from the floor and grabbed nine rebounds.
Being the go-to player might be uncommon for a
freshman, but it is a role Meharry is familiar with.
“My junior and senior year in high school, that’s
the role I played,” Meharry says. “So, yeah, I’m
definitely comfortable being the go-to player, al
though it is a lot of pressure—a lot of pressure,”
she adds with a long sigh and a nervous grin. "It’s
the next level.”
Meharry is coming off an 18-point, four-rebound
effort in a 97-72 loss Sunday at perennial Pacific
10 Conference power Stanford, and her 21 points
against Washington State in the Kona Classic on
Dec. 20 were the most scored by an Oregon fresh
man since 1991. She also set a tournament single
game record by shooting 90 percent on 9-for-10
shooting from the field against the Cougars.
Turn to FRESH, Page 7B