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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1998)
Oregon 74, Oregon State 67 Win: McShane buries Beavers in final minutes ^Continuedfrom Page 11 lead. It was a lineup that was different in that starters and two of Oregon's better players, Henry Madden and faniar Cur ry, were left on the bench. “This isa team that we really don't have a set lineup,” Kent said. "We’re going to go with who is in a groove and who is playing well." Brown, McShane and Smith hit con secutive three-pointers as Oregon built an eight-point lead five minutes, 30 sec onds into the half. During that stretch, Quinine held Ben jamin scoreless and the rest of the Beavers couldn’t pick up the slack. “The bigger key to the game was when Donte got on [Benjamin] in the second half and slowed him down a little bit and gave us the opportunity to get control of thegame,” Kent said. The Beavers kept it close, pulling to within two with 4:30 minutes to play. But McShane answered with a three pointer as time expired on the shot clock to put Oregon up by five. McShane was also Oregon’s answer in the game’s final 1:46, getting to the free throw line five times in that span and ig niting the crowd with a coast-to-coast layup and foul with 54 seconds remaining. “I was telling myself I needed to attack it on the dribble,” McShane said. “Other than that, I just had some open shots and knocked them down.” Kent added: “1 thought he was the biggest difference in thegame. He really settled us down and gave us great point guard play. He saw something and felt something in the game that made him think he could score.” While Kent said he was excited with the Civil War victory, he didn’t want to overemphasize its importance. "It was more important for us to get the win at this point in time, regardless of who we were playing,” he said. “We needed a win. We needed to get reenergized. “I can’t say enough about how these guys battled tonight. They really did an outstanding job.” NICK MEDLEY/Emerald Oregon point guard Yasir Rosemond celebrates from the bench during the final minutes of the Ducks' 74-67 win before a sellout crowd at McArthur Court. It teas the first sellout of the season and the Ernie Kent era. NICK MEDLEY/EmeralO A loyal Oregon fan chews on his team white making it dear to the OSU crowd and players that Eugene is the place to he Civil War: Benjamin fatigued at end of game m Continued from Page 11 during which Oregon went from that four-point deficit at halftime to take a seven-point lead witli just more than 10 minutes to play. In fact, just four of Benjamin’s 17 second-half points came while Quinine was in the game. But with no one else willing to step up, the Beavers still looked to their savior on every posses sion in the last five minutes. Benjamin scored 11 points in those five minutes, but it was too little, too late, as the R-foot-6 leaper was too fatigued to win the game single-handedly. "They made him work hard for everything he got,” said Oregon State head coach Eddie Payne. "And late in the game you could tell it took its toll on him. He was having trouble breathing and got a little dizzy a couple of times. But you’ve got to give him credit — he played as hard as he could play.” Unfortunately for Payne and the Beavers, no one else seemed to be on their game. Senior Jerome Vaden was the only other Beaver to score in dou ble figures, with 11, and Oregon State’s highly touted young guard tandem of sophomore John-Blair Bickerstaff and freshman Deaun dra Tanner combined for just 12 ^ I tried to take Corey Benjamin out of the game. When you consider yourself a good player, you like to play aga inst other g real players. I think I'm a great defet isii v pi a) vr, and the only way for me to know is if I can shut down guys like him. ” Donte Quinine Oregon basketball player points and one assist. “Our defense was pretty good, but offensively we just stunk up the place,” Vaden said. "Corey was keeping us in the game, and I’m glad he was doing that, be cause our offense was just unbear able." Benjamin accounted lor 54 per cent of the Beavers' offense and did his best to disprove the popu lar theory that his lack of a jump shot was the only thing keeping him from the riches of the NBA. III! Iiit four of seven three-point shots, and half of his points name on jumpers. Benjamin’s ability to score has never been in question. What was disputable was the ability of his teammates to help him win games, and they failed collectively on Sat urday. Benjamin denied that the pres sure on him to carry the Beavers’ scoring load is too much for him to handle. “I’m a person that's supposed to score at times when we need someone to score,” Benjamin said. “I'm willing to step and put the ball in thebasket.” He put the ball in the basket 21 times against Oregon and almost repeated his effort from last week, when he scored 3fi points to lead the Beavers to a win over Arizona State. But Oregon head coach Ernie Kent summed up what was on the minds of everyone who saw Benjamin give a spectacular, but futile, effort. "You just saw a great individual performance by a playergettiug in the zone," Kent said. "He was great as an individual. We did a better job as a team. Hopefully, this will show our guys that teams can rise above an individual per formance.”
