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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1998)
Oregon 97, UCLA 81 NICK MEDLEY/Emerald °' e^°" Players lenk Broum and Kristian Christiansen get mobbed by a rush of fans from the student section after Thursdays upset of highly ranked I >(I -1 Oregon: Season-high 12 three-pointers for Ducks M Continued from Page 11 points, seven had two or more rebounds and eight had at least two assists. Brown led all scorers with 22 points, shooting seven for 12 from the field with five three pointers. Curry had 17 points and five rebounds. Rosemond, who played only 14 minutes, scored 15 points, including three three pointers. In typical Bruin fashion, all five starters played over 32 min utes, with center Jeloni McCoy the only player off the bench to play more than a minute. “I think we fatigued them a lit tle bit coming down the stretch, and wore their legs out, and then it was just a matter of executing our offense,’’Kent said. The win improved the Ducks to 9-10 overall and 4-6 in the Pac 10. The Bruins fall to 17-4 and 7-3 and drop to three games behind conference-leading Arizona. Both Oregon point guards had a big game, with Mike McShane doing well to start and Rosemond picking up the pieces in the sec ond half. McShane ignited Oregon ear ly, driving the length of the court for an early layup, and hit a three pointer to tie the game at seven. Rosemond relieved McShane midway through the first half and scored five quick points. He also energized the crowd by diving three separate times for a loose ball rolling down the court. In the second half, Rosemond again came off the bench to give the Ducks a lift, scoring 10 points in 10 minutes. "What more can I tell you about guys like Yasir and Mike?" Kent asked. “Mike set the tone early on. He was aggressive, maybe too aggressive, but he set the tone. Then Yasir came in and hit bucket after bucket and made big plays.” Added Brown: “It takes tremendous amounts of pressure off us when [McShane and Rose mond] play well. Everybody is able to relax.” Oregon showed it could to put a team away once it had it on the ropes. That has been something the Ducks struggled with in the first half of the Pac-10 season, in cluding the loss against UCLA in Los Angeles on Jan. 10 when the Ducks were up by two in the game’s final minute. The pivotal point Thursday night was Oregon’s big run to end the game. From the opening tip, the game went back and forth with neither team being up or down by more than five points. And it was more of the same in the sec ond half. “When the score was nip and NICK MEDLEY/Emerald Oregon guard Terik Brown scored a game-high 22points tuck along the way, I just felt like we needed to get going and score some points,” Kent said. Part of the glory, Kent said, has to go to an Oregon crowd that was on its feet during the games entirety. “If it’s not the best home court in America, then it's certainly in the top two or three,” Kent said. “The thing about Mac Court — the mystery, the history — has been made with games like tonight. So when you have an opportunity to be involved in a game like this, it’s just a huge feeling.” Seniors: Madden a perfect 3 for 3 at home vs. Bruins m Continued from Page 11 Neither finished as Oregon’s leading scorer or rebounder, but each bathed fully in the exhilara tion that comes with again beating a ranked UCLA team at home. "I always like to beat them,” Cur ry said. “But we’re D-I players. This is a competitive game and we love to compete against each other. They bring us to their level, and we bring them to our level.” Madden also attempted to put emotion aside and break the game down strategically. “They can go small and they can go big, just like us,” he said. “So we match up real well with their big guys and their guards.” But he was soon overcome by the thrill of victory. “This year is much better than last year," said Madden, who last season beat UCLA on a jumper with four seconds left in overtime. “This year was a team that nobody thought we were capable of beating. And espe cially when it’s your senior yearand it’s your last time playing UCLA on Mar: Court in front of all these fans.” And Madden was quick to point out that he actually sat out the loss to UCLA two seasons ago, and is now a perfect three for three at home against the Bruins in his ca reer. Back on the LJCLA side, the Bruin seniors were quick to try and put what was obviously a disheartening loss behind them. “This is just another loss up in Oregon,” Johnson said. "It's not the end of the world. You would like to get one up here, but it’s too late for that. It's my last year.” Henderson echoed those thoughts. “It definitely wasn’t just another game,” he said, “especially for us as seniors. We at least wanted to go out with an even record against this team, but we just didn’t achieve that.” Bailey lamented: “It’s over with now. This is the last time we’ll play them. They just had a good game." This is a UCLA senior class that has won the Pacific-10 Conference Championship in each of its three seasons, as well as a national cham pionship when the players were freshmen. All three tried to down play the loss to what they obviously believed to be a lesser team. “It’s just disappointing as a play er," Johnson said. “ I can take losing to Arizona, Stanford, whatever, but when we come liere and lose to these guys it’s embarrassing. You start lo wonder about yourself as a basketball player.” Fortunately for Johnson, Hender son and Bailey, all three will proba bly have large NBA contracts next season to soothe the pain of losing three of four to Oregon in Eugene. But for three nights over four years Oregon can say it had the better team, the better fans and the thrill of victory. No rest for the weary; men get ready for Southern California The Ducks will attempt to avenge their four-point loss to USC in Los Angeles earlier this season By Rob Moseley Sports Reporter Three truths emerged from Oregon's 97 81 upset victory over No. 6 UCLA at McArthur Court on Thursday. Yes, this was the biggest win of the season for tire Ducks so far. Yes, this could be the spark Oregon needs if it hopes to retain any notion of a postsea son appearance. And no, there is absolutely no time to cel ebrate. The Ducks host Southern California on Saturday afternoon at 3:05 p.m., and the they would be wise to not look past a team that beat them in Los Angeles earlier this season and will be looking to avenge an overtime loss to Oregon State on Thursday. “We have to beat USC,” Oregon’s Terik Brown said. “We absolutely have to beat them.” Oregon travels to Washington next week end, and Brown, a Mercer Island, Wash., na tive, said the UCLA win could be just the thing the Ducks need to start a winning streak. But they can't look past the Trojans. USC (7-13 overal 1,3-7 Pacific-10 Con ference) has lost four of five after the loss to the Beavers. The Trojans have no definite leader, and 11 players are averaging at least 12 minutes per game. Junior forward Adam Spanich leads the team in scoring average with 14 points per game, but eight Trojans have lead the team in scoring in a game this season. Individually, 6-foot-6 freshman center Shannon Swiliis is second in the Pac-10 in blocked shots and 11th in rebounds. Gary Johnson is fourth in steals. The Trojans took a 63-59 heartbreaker from the Ducks on Jan. 8 in Los Angeles. Oregon led 30-23 at halftime. Smith had a game-high 17 points in the losing cause.
